php-doc-en/language/oop5/autoload.xml

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 <sect1 id="language.oop5.autoload">
  <title>Autoloading Objects</title>
  <para>
   Many developers writing object-oriented applications create
   one PHP source file per-class definition. One of the biggest
   annoyances is having to write a long list of needed includes
   at the beginning of each script (one for each class).
  </para>
  <para>
   In PHP 5, this is no longer necessary. You may define an
   &link.autoload; function which is automatically
   called in case you are trying to use a class which hasn't been
   defined yet. By calling this function the scripting engine is given
   a last chance to load the class before PHP fails with an error.
  </para>
  <para>
   <example>
    <title>Autoload example</title>
    <para>
     This example attempts to load the classes <literal>MyClass1</literal>
     and <literal>MyClass2</literal> from the files <filename>MyClass1.php</filename>
     and <filename>MyClass2.php</filename> respectively.
    </para>
    <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
function __autoload($class_name) {
    require_once $class_name . '.php';
}

$obj  = new MyClass1();
$obj2 = new MyClass2(); 
?>
]]>
    </programlisting>
   </example>
  </para>

 </sect1>
 
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