How can developers avoid common pitfalls, such as outputting content before using the header() function, when working with PHP code for web development?

Developers can avoid outputting content before using the header() function in PHP by ensuring that no content, including whitespace, is sent to the browser before calling header(). This is important because headers must be sent before any actual content to avoid errors. To solve this issue, developers can move the header() function to the top of their PHP file or use output buffering to capture any output before sending headers. 

<?php
ob_start(); // Start output buffering
header("Location: https://www.example.com"); // Redirect to example.com
ob_end_flush(); // Flush the output buffer
exit; // Stop script execution
?>

Keywords

outputting content header() function PHP code web development common pitfalls

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