method retuns error code or what is the best way to do that

i have a class like this:

class myclass {
    public function save($params){
        // some operations 
        // posible error
        return false;
        // some more code
        // posible error
        return false;
        // more code
        // if everything is ok
        return true;
    }
}

but what is the best way to display errors, one idea is make the class return numbers like for example:

public function save($params) {
    // some operations
    // some error with the db
    return 1;
    // more code
    // some error with a table
    retunr 2;
    // more code
    // if everything is ok
    return 0;
}

and wh开发者_运维知识库en al call this function, make a switch in order to display the errors:

$obj = new myclass();
$err = $obj->save($params);
switch($err) {
    case 1: echo 'error with the db'; break;
    case 2: echo 'error with some table'; break;
    default: echo 'object saved!';
}

is this the best way to write this? or there is another way?

Many programming languages give you the option to throw and catch exceptions. Where available, this is generally a better error handling model.

public function save($params) throws SomeException {
    // some operations 
    if (posible error) 
       throw new SomeException("reason");
}


// client code
try {
  save(params);
} catch (SomeException e)  {
  // log, recover, abort, ...
}

Another advantage of Exceptions is that they will (at least in some languages) give you access to stack trace as well as message.