How can environment variables be used in PHP to store constant values?

Environment variables can be used in PHP to store constant values that are sensitive or need to be configured based on the environment. This allows for better security and flexibility in managing configurations across different environments. To use environment variables in PHP, you can access them using the `getenv()` function and assign them to constants for easy access throughout your code.

// Define environment variables
$database_host = getenv('DB_HOST');
$database_user = getenv('DB_USER');
$database_pass = getenv('DB_PASS');

// Define constants using environment variables
define('DB_HOST', $database_host);
define('DB_USER', $database_user);
define('DB_PASS', $database_pass);

// Now you can use these constants throughout your code
echo DB_HOST;
echo DB_USER;
echo DB_PASS;