Autoloading in PHP (Stop Writing require_once Everywhere)

In small projects, you can manually require files. In real apps, that becomes a mess.

Autoloading means: - when you use a class - PHP loads its file automatically

Option A: Simple custom autoloader (learning purpose)

```php <?php spl_autoload_register(function ($class) { $path = __DIR__ . "/src/" . str_replace("\\", "/", $class) . ".php"; if (file_exists($path)) require $path; }); ?> ```

Option B: Composer autoload (professional)

Composer is the standard package manager for PHP. It can autoload your project classes using PSR-4.

You will learn Composer next.

> Next: Composer basics, install packages and set up autoload correctly.