Laravel: 'use' statement sometimes necessary, sometimes not

Question

It's quite random to me if I need to have a use statement to access a class. In the following code, which runs without issues, the Faker library doesn't need use Faker or something like that, yet the Seeder does need an use.

I assume Faker is accessed using the Composer autoloader, yet in composer.json I don't see the vendor directory being used for either the psr-4 autoload or the classmap autoload, so how it finds this is beyond me.

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Seeder;


class MoreProductsSeeder extends Seeder
{
    /**
     * Run the database seeds.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function run()
    {
        for ($i = 0; $i<1000; $i++)
        {
            $faker = Faker\Factory::create();
            \App\Product::create([
                'name' => $faker->name,
                'photo' => 'https://picsum.photos/200/300',
                'price' => rand(1,20000),
                'category_id' => rand(1,3)
            ]);
        }
      
    }
}

Does this answer your question? [How and where should I use the keyword "use" in php](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43136277/how-and-where-should-i-use-the-keyword-use-in-php) — Nico Haase, Jul 23 '20 at 11:32
Not really, I know the concept behind `use` but don't understand how exactly that plays out in my specific example. — Plumpie, Jul 23 '20 at 15:33
Some classes are available as aliases of loaded service providers. Some of examples are `DB`, `Log` etc. You can find full list in `config/app.php` file. — Tpojka, Jul 24 '20 at 05:52

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 23 '20 at 11:09

If you are using a class multiple times, for e.g
Faker\Factory::create(...)
.
.
.
then, in the same file you use
Faker\Factory::create(...) again.

Here you are repeating the full path Faker\Factory, rather you should just use Faker\Factory as Faker; before the class and then simply use the Faker::create(...) as many time you want without repeating the full path.

You can even do class MoreProductsSeeder extends Illuminate\Database\Seeder this instead if you prefer it.

You're right that my code could be optimized, but your answer isn't really an answer to my question — Plumpie, Jul 23 '20 at 15:30

Laravel: 'use' statement sometimes necessary, sometimes not

1 Answers1