How important is the placement of session_start() in a PHP script, and what impact does it have on session management?

The placement of session_start() in a PHP script is crucial as it needs to be called before any output is sent to the browser. If session_start() is called after any output, it will result in an error and session variables may not be properly initialized. To ensure proper session management, session_start() should be placed at the beginning of the script before any HTML or PHP code.

<?php
session_start();

// Other PHP code or HTML content goes here
?>