Exceptions are wonderful things, but I sometimes worry that I throw too many. Consider this example:

Class User {

  public function User(user){

    // Query database for user data

    if(!user) throw new ExistenceException('User not found');

  }

}

I'd argue that it makes as much sense to simply return false (or set all user data to false in this case), rather than throwing an exception.

Which do you prefer?