How can gettext be used to implement a multilingual website in PHP?

To implement a multilingual website in PHP, gettext can be used to easily manage and display translations for different languages. Gettext is a PHP extension that provides functions for internationalization and localization support. By using gettext, developers can create language-specific translation files and easily switch between languages based on user preferences.

// Set the language to be used
$language = "fr_FR";

// Set the path to the directory containing language files
$locale_dir = "path/to/locale";

// Set the default domain
$domain = "messages";

// Set the locale
setlocale(LC_ALL, $language);

// Bind the domain
bindtextdomain($domain, $locale_dir);

// Specify the character encoding
bind_textdomain_codeset($domain, 'UTF-8');

// Choose domain
textdomain($domain);

// Now, you can use gettext functions to display translated strings
echo _("Hello, World!");