In what scenarios should UTF-16 encoding be used in PHP, and what are the limitations of this encoding?

UTF-16 encoding should be used in PHP when dealing with languages that require characters outside of the ASCII range, such as Asian languages or certain mathematical symbols. However, UTF-16 has limitations in terms of memory usage and compatibility with certain functions and libraries in PHP. 

// Example of using UTF-16 encoding in PHP
$string = "こんにちは"; // Japanese greeting
$utf16String = mb_convert_encoding($string, 'UTF-16', 'UTF-8');
echo $utf16String;

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