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Date: Mon, 25 May 2015 11:56:27 -0600
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To: Marc Bennewitz <dev@mabe.berlin>
Cc: PHP internals list <internals@lists.php.net>
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] ::class wrong case
From: levim@php.net (Levi Morrison)

On Mon, May 25, 2015 at 11:47 AM, Marc Bennewitz <dev@mabe.berlin> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have noted that detecting a class name using "::class" it will return the
> called case instead of the original case.
> see http://3v4l.org/97K36
>
> That's annoying as I like to check the right class case on autoload to
> detect mistakes.
>
> Sure, class names in PHP are case-insensitive but filesystems aren't and
> most autoloader using the FS to find the right file. To catch such kind of
> mistakes I would like to implement a fast check in my autoloader to get
> noted on development instead on production. It's currently only possible
> with ReflectionClass but this will be much slower as with ::class.
>
> Are there any reasons to get the called case of the class instead or the
> original one?

The way this is implemented means that the class doesn't even have to
exist. It's purely compile-time expansion. The identifier doesn't even
have to be a class at all[1]:

<?php

namespace foo;

function bar(){}

var_dump(bar::class); // string(7) "foo\bar"

?>

This was not explained in the RFC at all, and had I known this I would
have voted against it personally.

[1] It doesn't work when you import a function name with `use
function` because it's only intended to work with classes and
class-like entities.