PHP中的ClassName :: class vs'ClassName'

Question

In one of my projects we are having a function which validates objects like:

if( true == valObj( $someObj, 'SomeClass' ) ) {
    //Do some work;
}

While using this I thought this can be written like:

if( true == valObj( $someObj, SomeClass::class ) ) {
    //Do some work;
}

Now I just want to know which approach is better and why? Or are they same?

Answer 1

SomeClass::class returns the full namespace including the class name. Whilst if you use the string notation you have to add the namepace (if any) yourself.

Edit:

It doesn't matter which notation you choose, although I personally prefer the string notation as it shows you directly what namespace the class is in while scrolling through code.