What are the best practices for securely storing user passwords in PHP?

Storing user passwords securely in PHP is crucial to protect user data from unauthorized access. The best practice is to use password hashing functions like password_hash() to securely hash passwords before storing them in the database. Additionally, using a unique salt for each password can further enhance security.

// Hashing and storing user password securely
$password = "user_password";
$hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);
// Store $hashed_password in the database