How can the use of delimiters in regular expressions impact the functionality of PHP code, especially when transitioning between different versions?

When transitioning between different versions of PHP, the use of delimiters in regular expressions can impact the functionality of PHP code due to changes in how delimiters are interpreted. To solve this issue, it is recommended to use consistent delimiters and escape any special characters within the regular expression pattern.

// Using consistent delimiters and escaping special characters in regular expression pattern
$pattern = '/^https?:\/\/(www\.)?example\.com$/';
$url = 'https://www.example.com';

if (preg_match($pattern, $url)) {
    echo 'URL matches the pattern';
} else {
    echo 'URL does not match the pattern';
}