In the context of PHP development, what are some alternatives to using the extract() function to avoid undefined variable errors?
Using the extract() function in PHP can lead to undefined variable errors if the keys in the array being extracted do not match variable names. To avoid these errors, it is recommended to manually assign values from the array to variables. This ensures that variables are explicitly declared and defined, reducing the risk of undefined variable errors.
// Example of manually assigning values from an array to variables without using extract()
$data = ['name' => 'John', 'age' => 30];
$name = $data['name'];
$age = $data['age'];
echo $name . ' is ' . $age . ' years old.';