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1. You installed PHP and the new default settings are somewhat poorly documented but do not exclude E_NOTICE.

2. E_NOTICE warnings like undefined variables and undefined indexes actually help to make your code cleaner and safer. I can tell you that, years ago, keeping E_NOTICE enabled forced me to declare my variables. It made it a LOT easier to learn C, were not declaring variables is much bigger of a nuisance.

• When I was encountering these and other issues, I used NetBeans IDE (free) and it gave me a host of warnings and notices. Some of them offer very helpful tips. This is not a requirement, and I don't use IDEs anymore except for large projects. I'm more of a vim person these days :).

1. You installed PHP and the new default settings are somewhat poorly documented but do not exclude E_NOTICE.

2. E_NOTICE warnings like undefined variables and undefined indexes actually help to make your code cleaner and safer. I can tell you that, years ago, keeping E_NOTICE enabled forced me to declare my variables. It made it a LOT easier to learn C. In C, not declaring variables is much bigger of a nuisance.

• When I was encountering these and other issues, I used NetBeanss IDE (free) and it gave me a host of warnings and notices. Some of them offer very helpful tips. This is not a requirement, and I don't use IDEs anymore except for large projects. I'm more of a vim person these days :).

; Common Values: ; E_ALL (Show all errors, warnings and notices including coding standards.) ; E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE (Show all errors, except for notices) ; E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT (Show all errors, except for notices and coding standards warnings.) ; E_COMPILE_ERROR|E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR|E_ERROR|E_CORE_ERROR (Show only errors) ; Default Value: E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT & ~E_DEPRECATED ; Development Value: E_ALL ; Production Value: E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT ; http://php.net/error-reporting error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT 

; Common Values: ; E_ALL (Show all errors, warnings and notices including coding standards.) ; E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE (Show all errors, except for notices) ; E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT (Show all errors, except for notices and coding standards warnings.) ; E_COMPILE_ERROR|E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR|E_ERROR|E_CORE_ERROR (Show only errors) ; Default Value: E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT & ~E_DEPRECATED ; Development Value: E_ALL ; Production Value: E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT ; http://php.net/error-reporting error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_DEPRECATED & ~E_STRICT 

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

Furthermore, according to PHP documentation, by default, E_NOTICE is disabled in php.ini. PHP docs recommend turning it on for debugging purposes. However, when I download PHP from the Ubuntu repository–and from BitNami's Windows stack–I see something else.

Notice that error_reporting is actually set to the production value by default, not to the "default" value by default. This is somewhat confusing and is not documented outside of php.ini, so I have not validated this on other distributions.

WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT?

1. Turn off E_NOTICE by copying the "Default value" E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT & ~E_DEPRECATED and replacing it with what is currently uncommented after the equals sign in error_reporting =. Restart Apache, or PHP if using CGI or FPM. Make sure you are editing the "right" php.ini. The correct one will be Apache if you are running PHP with Apache, fpm or php-fpm if running PHP-FPM, cgi if running PHP-CGI, etc. This is not the recommended method, but if you have legacy code that's going to be exceedingly difficult to edit, then it might be your best bet.

2. Turn off E_NOTICE on the file or folder level. This might be preferable if you have some legacy code but want to do things the "right" way otherwise. To do this, you should consult Apache2, Nginx, or whatever your server of choice is. In Apache, you would use php_value inside of <Directory>.

3. Rewrite your code to be cleaner. If you need to do this while moving to a production environment or don't want someone to see your errors, make sure you are disabling any display of errors, and only logging your errors (see display_errors and log_errors in php.ini and your server settings).

WHAT DO THE ERRORS MEAN?

// verbose way - generally better if (isset($my_array['my_index'])) { echo "My index value is: " . $my_array['my_index']; } // non-verbose ternary example - I use this sometimes for small rules. $my_index_val = isset($my_array['my_index'])?$my_array['my_index']:'(undefined)'; echo "My index value is: " . $my_index_val;  

(additional tip)

Why is this happening?

Furthermore, according to PHP documentation, by default, E_NOTICE is disabled in file php.ini. PHP documentation recommends turning it on for debugging purposes. However, when I download PHP from the Ubuntu repository–and from BitNami's Windows stack–I see something else.

Notice that error_reporting is actually set to the production value by default, not to the "default" value by default. This is somewhat confusing and is not documented outside of php.ini, so I have not validated this on other distributions.

What can I do about it?

1. Turn off E_NOTICE by copying the "Default value" E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE & ~E_STRICT & ~E_DEPRECATED and replacing it with what is currently uncommented after the equals sign in error_reporting =. Restart Apache, or PHP if using CGI or FPM. Make sure you are editing the "right" php.ini file. The correct one will be Apache if you are running PHP with Apache, fpm or php-fpm if running PHP-FPM, cgi if running PHP-CGI, etc. This is not the recommended method, but if you have legacy code that's going to be exceedingly difficult to edit, then it might be your best bet.

2. Turn off E_NOTICE on the file or folder level. This might be preferable if you have some legacy code but want to do things the "right" way otherwise. To do this, you should consult Apache 2, Nginx, or whatever your server of choice is. In Apache, you would use php_value inside of <Directory>.

3. Rewrite your code to be cleaner. If you need to do this while moving to a production environment or don't want someone to see your errors, make sure you are disabling any display of errors, and only logging your errors (see display_errors and log_errors in php.ini and your server settings).

What do the errors mean?

// verbose way - generally better if (isset($my_array['my_index'])) { echo "My index value is: " . $my_array['my_index']; } // non-verbose ternary example - I use this sometimes for small rules. $my_index_val = isset($my_array['my_index'])?$my_array['my_index']:'(undefined)'; echo "My index value is: " . $my_index_val; 

(Additional tip)