How does the use of number_format() function impact the accuracy of monetary calculations in PHP?

Using the number_format() function in PHP can impact the accuracy of monetary calculations because it rounds the number to a specified decimal precision and adds thousand separators. This can lead to rounding errors and inaccurate calculations when performing arithmetic operations on formatted numbers. To ensure accurate monetary calculations, it is recommended to only use number_format() for display purposes and perform calculations on the raw numeric values.

$price1 = 10.25;
$price2 = 5.75;

// Perform calculations on raw numeric values
$total = $price1 + $price2;

// Format the total for display
$total_formatted = number_format($total, 2);

echo "Total: $" . $total_formatted;