What alternative PHP functions or methods could be used to achieve the desired output?

To achieve the desired output of converting a string to lowercase without using the `strtolower()` function, you can use the `mb_strtolower()` function. This function is similar to `strtolower()` but supports multi-byte characters, making it a more versatile option for string manipulation in PHP.

$string = "Hello World!";
$lowercaseString = mb_strtolower($string);
echo $lowercaseString;