How can a developer effectively implement a debugging flag in PHP to control the output of debugging messages?

To effectively implement a debugging flag in PHP to control the output of debugging messages, developers can use a simple boolean variable that can be toggled on or off. By checking the value of this variable before outputting any debugging messages, developers can easily control whether the messages are displayed or not. This allows for easy debugging during development without cluttering the production code with unnecessary messages.

// Set the debugging flag to true for debugging messages
$debug = true;

// Output debugging messages only if the debugging flag is set to true
if ($debug) {
    echo "Debugging message 1\n";
    echo "Debugging message 2\n";
    // Add more debugging messages as needed
}