How can PHP functions like utf8_encode be used effectively to handle character encoding issues?

Character encoding issues can arise when working with different character sets in PHP, leading to garbled or incorrectly displayed text. PHP functions like utf8_encode can be used effectively to convert a string from ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8 encoding, which is a common encoding used for web content. This can help ensure that text is displayed correctly across different platforms and browsers.

// Example of using utf8_encode to handle character encoding
$isoString = "Café";
$utf8String = utf8_encode($isoString);

echo $utf8String; // Output: Café