What are the best practices for assigning and accessing session variables in PHP, considering the global namespace and potential conflicts?

When assigning and accessing session variables in PHP, it is best practice to use the `$_SESSION` superglobal array to avoid conflicts with variables in the global namespace. This ensures that session variables are stored and accessed consistently across different parts of your application.

// Start the session
session_start();

// Assign a session variable
$_SESSION['username'] = 'john_doe';

// Access the session variable
$username = $_SESSION['username'];