Is it recommended to include files within methods of a class in PHP, or are there better ways to handle dependencies?

It is not recommended to include files within methods of a class in PHP as it can lead to messy and hard-to-maintain code. A better way to handle dependencies is to use autoloading, which allows you to define a set of rules for loading classes automatically when they are needed.

// Autoloading example using spl_autoload_register()

spl_autoload_register(function($class) {
    include 'path/to/classes/' . $class . '.php';
});

// Now you can create instances of classes without manually including files
$object = new ClassName();