Import everything from a namespace

Question

In python you can do "import star" to embed everything from another namespace into the local one:

# file "spam":
def ham():
    some code

# file "main":
from spam import *
xy = ham() <-- uses 'ham' from 'spam'

This is usually considered "bad practice", but I'm still wondering how to do the same with php namespaces. The following doesn't work:

# file "spam":
namespace spam;
function ham() {
    some code
}

# file "main":
include "spam.php";
use spam;    
xy = ham() <-- error

That's strange... i do it everyday and it works everytime. Making a page a.php with function (or public function) a, include it into page b.php and calling the a function. — Goikiu, Dec 30 '13 at 09:49
@Goikiu: good point, but I'd like to keep "spam" namespaced, so that whoever uses it has a choice. — georg, Dec 30 '13 at 09:55
*"Neither functions nor constants can be imported via the use statement."* - http://php.net/language.namespaces.faq#language.namespaces.faq.nofuncconstantuse — hakre, Dec 30 '13 at 10:23

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 30 '13 at 09:50

2

In PHP you do not "import from" a namespace. You can only alias a namespace or class to another (presumably shorter) name. So typically you do this:

use Foo as F;

new F\Bar;

That's the PHP "equivalent" to "using everything from a namespace as conveniently as possible".

answered Dec 30 '13 at 09:50

deceze

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As a side note, that kind of aliasing may kill readability. – Leri Dec 30 '13 at 09:53
Or drastically improve it, depending on the situation. – deceze Dec 30 '13 at 09:56
So, the answer is "no way"? – georg Dec 30 '13 at 09:56
@thg Yes, no way, because PHP's and Python's mechanisms are actually very different. Apples and oranges. – deceze Dec 30 '13 at 09:57
Ok, `use spam\ham` doesn't work either. Is this expected? – georg Dec 30 '13 at 10:02
@thg You can only alias *namespaces or classes*, not functions. – deceze Dec 30 '13 at 10:14

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 30 '13 at 10:19

While there is no way to include all classes in a namespace with a single line, the way one can with just about any other language, I find it endlessly helpful to have an IDE handle the "use" cases automatically.

I highly recommend looking into PhpStorm (it's my personal favorite). It does a wonderful job automatically writing the "use" lines when using the auto-complete features.

See https://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/webhelp/creating-imports.html

Import everything from a namespace

2 Answers2