What are the best practices for organizing variables and functions in included PHP files to avoid conflicts?

To avoid conflicts when including PHP files with variables and functions, it is best practice to encapsulate your code within a class or namespace. This helps to isolate the variables and functions within a specific scope, reducing the likelihood of naming conflicts with other included files. 

// File: included_file.php

// Encapsulate variables and functions within a class
class MyIncludedClass {
    public static $myVariable = 'Hello';
    
    public static function myFunction() {
        return 'World';
    }
}
```

Then, when including the file in your main script, you can access the variables and functions using the class name:

```php
// File: main_script.php

include 'included_file.php';

echo MyIncludedClass::$myVariable; // Output: Hello
echo MyIncludedClass::myFunction(); // Output: World

Keywords

variable scope function naming conventions namespace include_once global variables

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