How can global classes and functions be used to retrieve values of variables in PHP?

Global classes and functions can be used in PHP to retrieve values of variables by declaring the variable as global within the function or class method. This allows the variable to be accessed and modified within the function or method. By using global classes and functions, you can easily retrieve values of variables from different scopes without having to pass them as parameters.

$globalVariable = "Hello, world!";

function retrieveGlobalVariable() {
    global $globalVariable;
    return $globalVariable;
}

echo retrieveGlobalVariable(); // Output: Hello, world!