Laravel -- Why the `::class` Constant

Question

In Laravel 5.1, the kernel for the CLI class looks something like this

#File: app/Console/Kernel.php
class Kernel extends ConsoleKernel
{
    //...    
    protected $commands = [
        \App\Console\Commands\Inspire::class,
    ];
    //...
}

Is the change to using the predefined/magic constant ::class

\App\Console\Commands\Inspire::class

functionally different than simply using the class name?

\App\Console\Commands\Inspire

Answer 1

Nope, using ::class on a class returns the fully qualified class name, so it's the same thing as writing 'App\Console\Commands\Inspire' (in quotes, since it's a string). The class keyword is new to PHP 5.5.

It looks silly in this example, but it can be useful in e.g. testing or in defining relations. For instance, if I have an Article class and an ArticleComment class, I might end up doing

use Some\Long\Namespace\ArticleComment;

class Article extends Model {

    public function comments()
    {
        return $this->hasMany(ArticleComment::class);
    }

}

Reference: PHP Docs.