How can PHP developers ensure consistent character encoding and proper display of special characters when working with XML files and xslt_process()?

When working with XML files and xslt_process() in PHP, developers can ensure consistent character encoding and proper display of special characters by setting the appropriate encoding for both the XML file and the XSL stylesheet, as well as using functions like utf8_encode() and utf8_decode() to handle any encoding mismatches.

// Set the encoding for the XML file
$xml = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'UTF-8');
$xml->load('example.xml');

// Set the encoding for the XSL stylesheet
$xsl = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'UTF-8');
$xsl->load('stylesheet.xsl');

// Create the XSLT processor
$proc = new XSLTProcessor();
$proc->importStylesheet($xsl);

// Apply the transformation
$result = $proc->transformToXML($xml);

// Output the transformed XML
echo $result;