diff --git a/.github/workflows/php.yml b/.github/workflows/php.yml
index 7a68055..b098f1f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/php.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/php.yml
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ jobs:
           phpunit-versions: '7.5.20'
           coverage: true
         - php-versions: '8.1'
-          phpunit-versions: '9.5.4'
+          phpunit-versions: '9.5.16'
 
     steps:
     - name: Setup PHP
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d61b12a..1e2e73f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -98,6 +98,10 @@ The `tokens` property contains an array of tokens. SQL keywords are returned as
 with multi-word terms (e.g. `DEFAULT CHARACTER SET`) as a single token. Strings and escaped
 identifiers are not further processed; they are returned exactly as expressed in the input SQL.
 
+By default, the tokenizer will ignore unterminated comments and strings, and stop parsing at 
+that point, producing no further tokens. You can set `$parser->throw_on_bad_syntax = true;` to
+throw an exception of type `iamcal\SQLParserSyntaxException` instead.
+
 
 ## Performance
 
diff --git a/src/SQLParser.php b/src/SQLParser.php
index ed4eb15..b1e52af 100644
--- a/src/SQLParser.php
+++ b/src/SQLParser.php
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 namespace iamcal;
 
+class SQLParserSyntaxException extends \Exception { }
+
 class SQLParser{
 
 	#
@@ -13,6 +15,7 @@ class SQLParser{
 	public $source_map = array();
 
 	public $find_single_table = false;
+	public $throw_on_bad_syntax = false;
 
 	public function parse($sql){
 
@@ -59,6 +62,7 @@ private function _lex($sql){
 			if (preg_match('!--!A', $sql, $m, 0, $pos)){
 				$p2 = strpos($sql, "\n", $pos);
 				if ($p2 === false){
+					if ($this->throw_on_bad_syntax) throw new SQLParserSyntaxException("Unterminated comment at position $pos");
 					$pos = $len;
 				}else{
 					$pos = $p2+1;
@@ -68,6 +72,7 @@ private function _lex($sql){
 			if (preg_match('!/\\*!A', $sql, $m, 0, $pos)){
 				$p2 = strpos($sql, "*/", $pos);
 				if ($p2 === false){
+					if ($this->throw_on_bad_syntax) throw new SQLParserSyntaxException("Unterminated comment at position $pos");
 					$pos = $len;
 				}else{
 					$pos = $p2+2;
@@ -88,6 +93,7 @@ private function _lex($sql){
 			if (substr($sql, $pos, 1) == '`'){
 				$p2 = strpos($sql, "`", $pos+1);
 				if ($p2 === false){
+					if ($this->throw_on_bad_syntax) throw new SQLParserSyntaxException("Unterminated backtick at position $pos");
 					$pos = $len;
 				}else{
 					$source_map[] = array($pos, 1+$p2-$pos);
@@ -113,6 +119,7 @@ private function _lex($sql){
 
 			# <character string literal>
 			if ($sql[$pos] == "'" || $sql[$pos] == '"'){
+				$str_start_pos = $pos;
 				$c = $pos+1;
 				$q = $sql[$pos];
 				while ($c < strlen($sql)){
@@ -128,6 +135,10 @@ private function _lex($sql){
 					}
 					$c++;
 				}
+				if ($c >= strlen($sql)){
+					if ($this->throw_on_bad_syntax) throw new SQLParserSyntaxException("Unterminated string at position $str_start_pos");
+					$pos = $len;
+				}
 				continue;
 			}
 
diff --git a/tests/InvalidTest.php b/tests/InvalidTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..20e8dce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/InvalidTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+<?php
+	use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;
+
+	final class InvalidTest extends TestCase{
+
+		# tests for invalid inputs
+
+		function testBrokenSyntaxRegular(){
+
+			// by default, bad syntax (unterminated strings, comments, etc) will just not produce a token
+
+			$obj = new iamcal\SQLParser();
+
+			$tokens = $obj->lex("CREATE TABLE `users ( id int(10) )");
+			$this->assertEquals(count($tokens), 1);
+
+			$tokens = $obj->lex("CREATE TABLE `users` ' ( `id` int(10) )");
+			$this->assertEquals(count($tokens), 2);
+		}
+
+		function testBrokenSyntaxException(){
+
+			// in exception mode, it throws an exception...
+
+			$obj = new iamcal\SQLParser();
+			$obj->throw_on_bad_syntax = true;
+
+			try {
+				$obj->lex("CREATE TABLE `users ( id int(10) )");
+				$this->fail("Expected Exception has not been raised");
+			} catch (Exception $ex) {
+				$this->assertInstanceOf('iamcal\SQLParserSyntaxException', $ex);
+			}
+
+			try {
+				$obj->lex("CREATE TABLE `users` ' ( `id` int(10) )");
+				$this->fail("Expected Exception has not been raised");
+			} catch (Exception $ex) {
+				$this->assertInstanceOf('iamcal\SQLParserSyntaxException', $ex);
+			}
+
+		}
+	}