Using namespaces: fallback to global function/constant

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

Inside a namespace, when PHP encounters an unqualified Name in a class name, function or constant context, it resolves these with different priorities. Class names always resolve to the current namespace name. Thus to access internal or non-namespaced user classes, one must refer to them with their fully qualified Name as in:

Example #1 Accessing global classes inside a namespace

<?phpnamespace A\B\C;class Exception extends \Exception {}$a = new Exception('hi'); // $a is an object of class A\B\C\Exception$b = new \Exception('hi'); // $b is an object of class Exception$c = new ArrayObject; // fatal error, class A\B\C\ArrayObject not found?>

For functions and constants, PHP will fall back to global functions or constants if a namespaced function or constant does not exist.

Example #2 global functions/constants fallback inside a namespace

<?phpnamespace A\B\C;const E_ERROR = 45;function strlen($str){    return \strlen($str) - 1;}echo E_ERROR, "\n"; // prints "45"echo INI_ALL, "\n"; // prints "7" - falls back to global INI_ALLecho strlen('hi'), "\n"; // prints "1"if (is_array('hi')) { // prints "is not array"    echo "is array\n";} else {    echo "is not array\n";}?>