Description
bool 
class_exists ( string class_name [, bool autoload] )
     This function returns TRUE if the class given by
     class_name has been defined,
     FALSE otherwise.
    
     
Example 1. class_exists() example 
<?php // Check the class exists before trying to use it if (class_exists('MyClass')) {     $myclass = new MyClass(); }
  ?>
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     class_exists() will attempt to call __autoload by
     default, if you don't want class_exists() to 
     call __autoload, you can set the parameter autoload
     to FALSE.
    
     
Example 2. autoload parameter example 
<?php function __autoload($class) {     include($class . '.php');
      // Check to see if the include declared the class     if (!class_exists($class, false)) {         trigger_error("Unable to load class: $class", E_USER_WARNING);     } }      if (class_exists('MyClass')) {     $myclass = new MyClass(); }
  ?>
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    Note: 
      The autoload parameter was added in PHP 5
     
     See also interface_exists(), and
     get_declared_classes().