How can the use of utf8_encode() and utf8_decode() affect the display of special characters in PHP?

When dealing with special characters in PHP, using utf8_encode() can be useful to convert a string to UTF-8 encoding, while utf8_decode() can be used to convert a UTF-8 encoded string back to its original encoding. This can be particularly helpful when handling data from different sources or when displaying special characters correctly on a webpage.

// Example of using utf8_encode() and utf8_decode() to handle special characters
$originalString = "Café"; // string with special character
$utf8EncodedString = utf8_encode($originalString); // convert to UTF-8 encoding
$decodedString = utf8_decode($utf8EncodedString); // convert back to original encoding

echo $decodedString; // Output: Café