In the context of PHP, what are the implications of defining variables within functions and their scope outside of those functions?

Defining variables within functions limits their scope to only that function, meaning they cannot be accessed outside of it. To make variables accessible outside of a function, they need to be defined outside of any function, making them global variables. However, using global variables should be minimized to prevent potential conflicts and maintain code readability.

// Define a variable outside of any function to make it global
$globalVariable = "I am a global variable";

function myFunction() {
    // Access the global variable within the function
    global $globalVariable;
    echo $globalVariable;
}

myFunction(); // Output: I am a global variable