Global space

(PHP 5 >= 5.3.0, PHP 7, PHP 8)

Without any namespace definition, all class and function definitions are placed into the global space - as it was in PHP before namespaces were supported. Prefixing a name with \ will specify that the name is required from the global space even in the context of the namespace.

Example #1 Using global space specification

<?php
namespace A\B\C;

/* This function is A\B\C\fopen */
function fopen() { 
     
/* ... */
     
$f = \fopen(...); // call global fopen
     
return $f;

?>

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User Contributed Notes 4 notes

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54
routinet
12 years ago
Included files will default to the global namespace.
<?php
//test.php
namespace test {
  include
'test1.inc';
  echo
'-',__NAMESPACE__,'-<br />';
}
?>

<?php
//test1.inc
 
echo '-',__NAMESPACE__,'-<br />';
?>

Results of test.php:

--
-test-
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13
nobody at example dot com
8 years ago
In namespaced context the Exception class needs to be prefixed with global prefix operator.

<?php

namespace hey\ho\lets\go;

class
MyClass
{
    public function
failToCatch()
    {
        try {
           
$thing = somethingThrowingAnException();
        } catch (
Exception $ex) {
             
// Not catched
       
}
    }

    public function
succeedToCatch()
    {
        try {
           
$thing = somethingThrowingAnException();
        } catch (\
Exception $ex) {
             
// This is now catched
       
}
    }

}
up
-20
hileon at gmail dot com
8 years ago
This design of access globe name is bad, at least inconvenient.
In case that you have some legacy code, and try to copy and re-use it under some namespace. You have to add prefix "\" on any global function call.
up
-30
xmarcos at gmail dot com
11 years ago
That's the expected behavior, you have to declare the namespace at the top of the file to "extend" it.

If you include a global namespaced file, it will operate on the global namespace.
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