Throwing exceptions in a PHP Try Catch block

Question

I have a PHP function in a Drupal 6 .module file. I am attempting to run initial variable validations prior to executing more intensive tasks (such as database queries). In C#, I used to implement IF statements at the beginning of my Try block that threw new exceptions if a validation failed. The thrown exception would be caught in the Catch block. The following is my PHP code:

function _modulename_getData($field, $table) {
  try {
    if (empty($field)) {
      throw new Exception("The field is undefined."); 
    }
    // rest of code here...
  }
  catch (Exception $e) {
    throw $e->getMessage();
  }
}

However, when I try to run the code, it's telling me that objects can only be thrown within the Catch block.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

function _modulename_getData($field, $table) {
  try {
    if (empty($field)) {
      throw new Exception("The field is undefined."); 
    }
    // rest of code here...
  }
  catch (Exception $e) {
    /*
        Here you can either echo the exception message like: 
        echo $e->getMessage(); 

        Or you can throw the Exception Object $e like:
        throw $e;
    */
  }
}