How can beginners differentiate between outdated and current PHP examples found online?

Beginners can differentiate between outdated and current PHP examples found online by checking the version of PHP being used in the example. Outdated examples may use deprecated functions or syntax that are no longer supported in newer PHP versions. It is important to refer to the official PHP documentation to ensure that the code is up-to-date and follows best practices.

// Example of checking PHP version before using deprecated function
if (version_compare(PHP_VERSION, '7.0.0') >= 0) {
    // Use updated function
    echo "Hello, World!";
} else {
    // Use deprecated function
    print "Hello, World!";
}