php error throwing

i have following line of PHP code:

 <?
    ini_set('display_errors', 'On');
    error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);
    if(file_exist('menu.xml'){
    print("file exist");
    $xml = simplexml_load_file('menu.xml');
    print_r($xml);
    }else{
    print("cant find menu.xml");
    exit('failed to open menu.xml');
    }
    ?>

when I open this does not display anything in browser ( i Expect开发者_运维百科 error message to come). I know there is a ")" missing at the end of if statement but why don't php throw error at the first place. Once i fix that it says undefined function file_exist() ? as per php Simplexml documentation file_exist is a valid func.

You don't see anything because syntax errors prevent the script from executing entirely. Since the script isn't valid PHP, it can't be executed at all. So your display_errors directive is never executed. Instead, the settings from php.ini regarding error handling are used, and apparently they're set to suppress all error output.

It's file_exists()

Are you sure you're not thinking of file_exists()?

http://php.net/manual/en/function.file-exists.php

Example SimpleXML code:

<?php
// The file test.xml contains an XML document with a root element
// and at least an element /[root]/title.

if (file_exists('test.xml')) {
    $xml = simplexml_load_file('test.xml');

    print_r($xml);
} else {
    exit('Failed to open test.xml.');
}
?>

The correct function is file_exists() not file_exist()

I guess the code isn't executed beceause of the syntax error, therefore display_errors and error_reporting are still configured to the system defaults.

You have to configure them in the php.ini or via php_flag and php_value .htaccess-directive for them to take effect in case of a syntax error.