In PHP, what are some considerations for structuring the order of content output, such as including server-side tasks before sending content to the client, to optimize performance and prevent issues with headers?

When working with PHP, it is important to structure your code in a way that server-side tasks, such as setting headers or performing database queries, are executed before any content is sent to the client. This helps optimize performance and prevents issues with headers being sent after content, which can result in errors. To achieve this, you should organize your code so that server-side tasks are completed at the beginning of your script before any output is generated. 

<?php
// Perform server-side tasks before sending content to the client
// For example, setting headers or querying a database

// Set headers before any content is sent
header('Content-Type: text/html');

// Perform database query
$connection = mysqli_connect('localhost', 'username', 'password', 'database');
$query = "SELECT * FROM table";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Output content to the client
echo "<html><head><title>Example Page</title></head><body>";
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    echo "<p>{$row['column']}</p>";
}
echo "</body></html>";

// Close the database connection
mysqli_close($connection);
?>

Keywords

PHP content output server-side tasks performance optimization headers

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