What are the best practices for maintaining variable values in PHP across different pages?

To maintain variable values across different pages in PHP, you can use sessions or cookies. Sessions store data on the server side, while cookies store data on the client side. Sessions are more secure and suitable for sensitive data, while cookies can be used for non-sensitive data.

// Start a session
session_start();

// Set a session variable
$_SESSION['variable_name'] = 'value';

// Retrieve the session variable on another page
session_start();
echo $_SESSION['variable_name'];