Namespaces overview
I agree with SR, the new namespaces feature has solved a number of problems for me which would have required horrible coding to solve otherwise.
An example use:
Say you are making a small script, and write a class to connect to a database, calling it 'connection'. If you find your script useful and gradually expand it into a large application, you may want to rename the class. Without namespaces, you have to change the name and every reference to it (say in inheriting objects), possibly creating a load of bugs. With namespaces you can drop the related classes into a namespace with one line of code, and less chance of errors.
This is by no means one of the biggest problems namespaces solve; I would suggest reading about their advantages before citicising them. They provide an elegant solutions to several problems involved in creating complex systems.
Defining namespaces
Although any valid PHP code can be contained within a namespace, only three type of code are affected by namespaces: classes, functions and constants.
Namespaces are declared using the namespace keyword. A file containing a namespace must declare the namespace at the top of the file before any other code - with one exception: the declare keyword.
Example #1 Declaring a single namespace
<?php
namespace MyProject;
const CONNECT_OK = 1;
class Connection { /* ... */ }
function connect() { /* ... */ }
?>
Example #2 Declaring a single namespace
<html>
<?php
namespace MyProject; // fatal error - namespace must be the first statement in the script
?>
In addition, unlike any other PHP construct, the same namespace may be defined in multiple files, allowing splitting up of a namespace's contents across the filesystem.
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User Contributed Notes
Defining namespaces - [8 notes]
David Drakard ¶
4 years ago
Anonymous ¶
5 years ago
@ RS: Also, you can specify how your __autoload() function looks for the files. That way another users namespace classes cannot overwrite yours unless they replace your file specifically.
danbettles at yahoo dot co dot uk ¶
4 years ago
Regarding constants defined with define() inside namespaces...
define() will define constants exactly as specified. So, if you want to define a constant in a namespace, you will need to specify the namespace in your call to define(), even if you're calling define() from within a namespace. The following examples will make it clear.
The following code will define the constant "MESSAGE" in the global namespace (i.e. "\MESSAGE").
<?php
namespace test;
define('MESSAGE', 'Hello world!');
?>
The following code will define two constants in the "test" namespace.
<?php
namespace test;
define('test\HELLO', 'Hello world!');
define(__NAMESPACE__ . '\GOODBYE', 'Goodbye cruel world!');
?>
jeremeamia at gmail dot com ¶
3 years ago
You should not try to create namespaces that use PHP keywords. These will cause parse errors.
Examples:
<?php
namespace Project/Classes/Function; // Causes parse errors
namespace Project/Abstract/Factory; // Causes parse errors
?>
Baptiste ¶
5 years ago
There is nothing wrong with PHP namespaces, except that those 2 instructions give a false impression of package management.
... while they just correspond to the "with()" instruction of Javascript.
By contrast, a package is a namespace for its members, but it offers more (like deployment facilities), and a compiler knows exactly what classes are in a package, and where to find them.
huskyr at gmail dot com ¶
3 years ago
"A file containing a namespace must declare the namespace at the top of the file before any other code"
It might be obvious, but this means that you *can* include comments and white spaces before the namespace keyword.
<?php
// Lots
// of
// interesting
// comments and white space
namespace Foo;
class Bar {
}
?>
parsmizban.com ¶
11 months ago
You can use this as a namespace declaration:
<?php
declare(encoding='UTF-8');
namespace parsmizban;
echo "parsmizban";
?>