What are some best practices for implementing language switching functionality in a PHP website?

Implementing language switching functionality in a PHP website involves creating language files for each supported language, setting a default language, and providing a way for users to switch between languages. One common approach is to use session variables to store the selected language and include the corresponding language file based on the user's preference. 

```php
// Start session
session_start();

// Check if language is set in session, if not, set default language
if (!isset($_SESSION['lang'])) {
    $_SESSION['lang'] = 'en'; // Default language is English
}

// Include language file based on selected language
include 'languages/'.$_SESSION['lang'].'.php';

// Function to switch language
function switchLanguage($lang) {
    $_SESSION['lang'] = $lang;
    // Redirect to the same page or homepage
    header('Location: '.$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']);
    exit;
}
```
This code snippet demonstrates how to implement language switching functionality in a PHP website. It starts a session, sets a default language if none is specified, includes the corresponding language file, and provides a function to switch languages.

Keywords

multilingual localization gettext language detection translation

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