How can global variables be properly accessed and modified within PHP functions to avoid issues like those encountered in the forum thread?

The issue with global variables in PHP functions is that they need to be explicitly declared as global within the function in order to modify them. To avoid any confusion or unexpected behavior, it's best practice to pass variables as parameters to functions rather than relying on global scope. However, if you do need to modify global variables within a function, use the global keyword to declare them within the function.

$globalVar = 10;

function modifyGlobalVar(){
    global $globalVar;
    $globalVar += 5;
}

modifyGlobalVar();
echo $globalVar; // Output: 15