What are some best practices for handling variable initialization in PHP?

When handling variable initialization in PHP, it is best practice to always initialize variables before using them to avoid potential errors or unexpected behavior. One common way to do this is to use the isset() function to check if a variable is set before using it. Additionally, you can assign a default value to a variable if it is not set using the null coalescing operator (??).

// Example of handling variable initialization in PHP
$variable1 = isset($variable1) ? $variable1 : 'default_value';

// Using the null coalescing operator to assign a default value
$variable2 = $variable2 ?? 'default_value';