How can absolute paths be used effectively in PHP to ensure consistent file inclusion?

Using absolute paths in PHP for file inclusion ensures that the correct file is always included, regardless of the current working directory. This can prevent errors and inconsistencies that may arise when using relative paths. To use absolute paths effectively, you can define a base path constant in your configuration file and then prepend this constant to the file paths when including them in your PHP scripts.

define('BASE_PATH', '/var/www/html');

include(BASE_PATH . '/includes/header.php');
include(BASE_PATH . '/includes/footer.php');