How can the use of custom constants improve the clarity and maintainability of code, especially in scenarios where predefined constants are not available?

When predefined constants are not available, using custom constants can improve the clarity and maintainability of code by providing meaningful names to values that are used multiple times throughout the codebase. This helps in understanding the purpose of the values and makes it easier to update them in the future. Custom constants also help in avoiding magic numbers or strings in the code, which can be error-prone and hard to maintain. 

<?php
// Define custom constants for better clarity and maintainability
define('TAX_RATE', 0.08);
define('DISCOUNT_AMOUNT', 10);

// Calculate final price with tax and discount
$price = 100;
$tax = $price * TAX_RATE;
$discount = DISCOUNT_AMOUNT;
$final_price = $price + $tax - $discount;

echo "Final price after tax and discount: $final_price";
?>

Keywords

custom constants clarity maintainability predefined constants PHP

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