How to handle exceptions inside a trigger? Is it better to report the error or to silence it?

Exception handling within triggers should be well thought out, as triggers operate at the database level and affect data integrity.

It's better not to "silence" errors, but to handle them properly and, if possible, log or pass information about the problem. If an error occurs in a trigger and is not handled, it can lead to transaction rollback and data loss.

It is recommended to:

• Use exception handling constructs (for example, in PL/SQL EXCEPTION WHEN ... THEN ...) to catch errors.
• Log errors into a separate table for subsequent analysis.
• If necessary, propagate the error further so that the application or user receives a notification.

Example in PL/SQL:

BEGIN
  -- main trigger logic
EXCEPTION
  WHEN OTHERS THEN
    INSERT INTO error_log (error_message, error_time) VALUES (SQLERRM, SYSDATE);
    RAISE; -- propagate the error further
END;

Thus, errors are not ignored but are recorded and can be handled at the application level.