How can the imap_8bit() and mb_encode_mimeheader() functions be used to handle special characters in PHP?

Special characters in email headers can cause encoding issues, leading to garbled or unreadable text. To handle special characters in PHP, the imap_8bit() function can be used to encode the email body, while the mb_encode_mimeheader() function can be used to encode the email header. This ensures that special characters are properly encoded and displayed in the email.

// Encode the email body using imap_8bit()
$body = imap_8bit($body);

// Encode the email header using mb_encode_mimeheader()
$subject = mb_encode_mimeheader($subject, 'UTF-8');

// Send the email with the properly encoded body and header
mail($to, $subject, $body, $headers);