Why it's impossible to throw exception from __toString()?

Question

Why it\'s impossible to throw exception from __toString()?

class a
{
    public function __toString()
    {
        throw new Exception();
    }
}

$a = new          


        

Answer 1

I don't think the rationale for this decision has ever been publicized. Looks like some internal architectural limitation.

On a more abstract level, it kind of makes sense. An object should be able to return a string representation of itself, no reason for that kind of action to fail.