What are the best practices for checking the existence of a variable in PHP?

When working with PHP, it is important to check for the existence of a variable before trying to use it to avoid errors in your code. One common way to check if a variable exists is by using the isset() function. This function returns true if the variable is set and not null, and false otherwise. Another option is to use the empty() function, which checks if a variable is empty or not. Both functions can help ensure that your code runs smoothly and without any unexpected errors.

// Using isset() function to check if a variable exists
if (isset($variable)) {
    // Variable exists, do something with it
    echo $variable;
} else {
    // Variable does not exist
    echo "Variable does not exist";
}

// Using empty() function to check if a variable exists and is not empty
if (!empty($variable)) {
    // Variable exists and is not empty, do something with it
    echo $variable;
} else {
    // Variable does not exist or is empty
    echo "Variable does not exist or is empty";
}