Why doesn't PHP catch a "Class not found" error?

Question

In the following example, if the class does not exist, I want to catch the error and create a Null class instead.

But in spite of my try/catch statements, PHP simply tells me Class 'SmartFormasdfasdf' not found.

How can I get PHP to catch the 'class not found' error?

<?php class SmartFormLogin extends SmartForm {     public function render() {         echo '<p>this is the login form</p>';     } }  class SmartFormCodeWrapper extends SmartForm {     public function render() {         echo '<p>this is the code wrapper form</p>';     } }  class SmartFormNull extends SmartForm {     public function render() {         echo '<p>the form "' . htmlentities($this->idCode) . '" does not exist</p>';     } }  class SmartForm {      protected $idCode;      public function __construct($idCode) {         $this->idCode = $idCode;     }      public static function create($smartFormIdCode) {         $className = 'SmartForm' . $smartFormIdCode;         try {             return new $className($smartFormIdCode);         } catch (Exception $ex) {             return new SmartFormNull($smartformIdCode);         }     } }  $formLogin = SmartForm::create('Login'); $formLogin->render(); $formLogin = SmartForm::create('CodeWrapper'); $formLogin->render(); $formLogin = SmartForm::create('asdfasdf'); $formLogin->render(); ?> 

Solution:

Thanks @Mchl, this is how I solved it then:

public static function create($smartFormIdCode) {   $className = 'SmartForm' . $smartFormIdCode;   if(class_exists($className)) {     return new $className($smartFormIdCode);   } else {     return new SmartFormNull($smartFormIdCode);   } }  

Answer 1

Because it's a fatal error. Use class_exists() function to check if class exist.

Also: PHP is not Java - unless you redefined default error handler, it will raise errors and not throw exceptions.

Answer 2

Old question, but in PHP7 this is a catchable exception. Though I still think the class_exists($class) is a more explicit way to do it. However, you could do a try/catch block using the new \Throwable exception type:

$className = 'SmartForm' . $smartFormIdCode; try {     return new $className($smartFormIdCode); } catch (\Throwable $ex) {     return new SmartFormNull($smartformIdCode); }