What are the best practices for using PHP functions to manipulate numbers in a specific format?

When manipulating numbers in a specific format in PHP, it is important to use built-in functions such as number_format() to ensure proper formatting for display purposes. This function allows you to specify the number of decimal places, decimal point, and thousands separator. Additionally, you can use functions like round() or ceil() to round numbers to a specific precision. By utilizing these functions, you can easily manipulate numbers in a desired format.

// Example of using number_format() to format a number with 2 decimal places and a comma as a thousands separator
$number = 123456.789;
$formatted_number = number_format($number, 2, '.', ',');
echo $formatted_number; // Output: 123,456.79