What are the advantages and disadvantages of using sessions to store and transfer data in PHP applications?

Using sessions to store and transfer data in PHP applications can provide a convenient way to maintain user data across multiple pages without the need for passing variables through URLs or forms. However, sessions can also consume server resources and may not be suitable for storing large amounts of data.

// Start a session
session_start();

// Store data in session
$_SESSION['username'] = 'JohnDoe';

// Retrieve data from session
$username = $_SESSION['username'];

// Destroy session
session_destroy();