PHP: How to access a namespace class with :: instead of \?

Question

I use namespace for a class like this below,

class_tidy.php,

namespace foo;

class tidy {
    public function hello() {
        echo 'Hello';
    }
}

index.php,

class MyAutoloader
{
    public static function load($className)
    {
        $parts = explode('\\', $className);
        require 'classes/class_'.end($parts) . '.php';
    }
}

spl_autoload_register("\MyAutoloader::load");

$test = new foo\tidy();
$test->hello();

It works perfectly, but I wonder if I can access the class, instead of,

$test = new foo\tidy();

But,

$test = new foo::tidy(); 

Which looks prettier. but with this error,

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting T_VARIABLE or '$' ...

Answer 1

You can't. The PHP syntax uses \ for namespaces.

As a matter of fact, php uses the T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM (which is their name for the double colon) for only one thing, using it after a class name to specify you want a member of that class.

I do believe there are some obscure details in the way this works which prevented PHP from using it as the namespace sperator as well, but I do not know which. (The thing is that this would mean that even if you branched from the official php and made your own version, you would have to go through a lot of work just to get that slight syntax change you want.)

Answer 2

The php team choose \ as the namespace separator. Even if you think :: is better you cannot change it. May I ask you why you would that?

Answer 3

Read the official manual: http://php.net/language.namespaces.nested :: is not supported as namespace separator, because it's already used (and therefore reserved) as scope resolution operator

Foo::$bar;

Also interesting: The corresponding RFC https://wiki.php.net/rfc/namespaceseparator