What are some common methods for passing data between PHP files, especially in the context of form submissions?

When passing data between PHP files, especially in the context of form submissions, common methods include using sessions, cookies, URL parameters, and POST requests. Sessions are often used to store data temporarily across multiple pages, cookies can store data on the client side, URL parameters can pass data through the URL, and POST requests are commonly used to send form data to another PHP file.

// Using sessions to pass data between PHP files
session_start();
$_SESSION['data'] = $_POST['form_data'];

// Using cookies to pass data between PHP files
setcookie('data', $_POST['form_data'], time() + 3600, '/');

// Using URL parameters to pass data between PHP files
header('Location: next_page.php?data=' . $_POST['form_data']);

// Using POST requests to pass data between PHP files
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'next_page.php');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, http_build_query(['data' => $_POST['form_data']));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);