@ character before a function call

the "@" will silence any php errors your function could raise.

It silences errors and warnings. See Error Control Operators.

As already answered the @ will stop the error (if any) from showing up.
In terms of performance this is not recommended.

What php is doing is:

• reading the error display state
• setting the error display to show no errors
• running your function
• setting the error display to it's previous state

If you don't want any errors showing up use error_reporting(0);.

Or just write bug free code :P

http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/18068/fid/38

All PHP expressions can be called with the "@" prefix, which turns off error reporting for that particular expression.

As everyone said, it stops the output of errors for that particular function. However, this decreases performance greatly since it has to change the error display setting twice. I would recommend NOT ignoring warnings or errors and fixing the code instead.