Are there any specific PHP functions or settings that need to be used to handle UTF-8 character encoding effectively in PHP scripts?

To handle UTF-8 character encoding effectively in PHP scripts, it is important to set the default_charset to UTF-8 in the php.ini file or using the header function. Additionally, using mb_internal_encoding('UTF-8') and mb_http_output('UTF-8') functions can help ensure proper handling of UTF-8 characters in PHP scripts.

// Set default charset to UTF-8
header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');
mb_internal_encoding('UTF-8');
mb_http_output('UTF-8');