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<h2 class="title">Tips</h2>
<p class="para">
In order to write future-proof code, it is recommended that you don't
place many variables, functions or classes in the global namespace. This will
prevent naming conflicts with 3rd party code as well as possible
future additions to the language.
</p>
<p class="para">
One common way to prevent naming conflicts of functions and classes is to
add them to their own dedicated
<a href="language.namespaces.html" class="link">namespace</a>.
</p>
<div class="informalexample">
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #007700">namespace </span><span style="color: #0000BB">MyProject</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br /><br />function </span><span style="color: #0000BB">my_function</span><span style="color: #007700">() {<br /> return </span><span style="color: #0000BB">true</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br />}<br /><br />\</span><span style="color: #0000BB">MyProject</span><span style="color: #007700">\</span><span style="color: #0000BB">my_function</span><span style="color: #007700">();</span>
</span>
</code></div>
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<p class="para">
This still needs you to keep track of already used namespaces, but once you
have decided on a namespace you will be using you can add all functions and
classes to it without having to think about conflicts again.
</p>
<p class="para">
It is considered best practice to limit the number of variables added to
the global scope in order to prevent naming conflicts with 3rd party
code.
</p>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<strong>Variable scoping</strong><br />
<p class="para">
Because of PHP's <a href="language.variables.scope.html" class="link">scoping rules</a>
variables defined inside functions and methods are not in the global scope
and as such cannot conflict with other variables defined in the global scope.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
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