What are best practices for debugging PHP code with if statements?

When debugging PHP code with if statements, it is important to carefully check the conditions within the if statement to ensure they are evaluating as expected. One common mistake is using assignment (=) instead of comparison (== or ===) operators. To effectively debug, you can use var_dump() or echo statements to output the values of variables within the if statement to see if they match your expectations.

// Incorrect if statement
if ($variable = 10) {
    echo "This will always execute";
}

// Corrected if statement
if ($variable == 10) {
    echo "This will only execute if variable is equal to 10";
}