What does @ mean in PHP?

I was wondering what @ means in PHP language. I have seen people using

$connect = @mysql_query('sql query here');

Not sure why. Could someone explain it for me?

Answer

The @ operator tells PHP to suppress error messages, so that they will not be shown.

For instance, using:

$result = mysql_query("this is an invalid query");

would result in a warning being shown, telling you that the MySQL query is invalid, while

$result = @mysql_query("this is still an invalid query");

would not.

Note, however, that this is very bad programming practice as it does not make error disappear, it just hides them, and it makes debugging a heck of a lot worse since you can't see what's actually wrong with your code.

Instead of using @, you should disable error_reporting and display_errors just display_errors in php.ini