What are the potential pitfalls of including separate files in PHP scripts for functions or configurations?

Including separate files for functions or configurations in PHP scripts can lead to potential pitfalls such as namespace collisions, unintended variable overwriting, and security vulnerabilities if the included files are not properly sanitized. To avoid these issues, it is recommended to use PHP namespaces for functions and constants to prevent collisions, prefix variables to avoid overwriting, and validate and sanitize any included files to prevent security vulnerabilities. 

// Example of using namespaces for functions and constants to prevent collisions
namespace MyFunctions {
    function myFunction() {
        // Function code here
    }
}

// Example of prefixing variables to avoid overwriting
$config_myVariable = 'value';

// Example of validating and sanitizing included files
$includedFile = 'path/to/file.php';
if (is_file($includedFile)) {
    include_once $includedFile;
} else {
    // Handle error or log message
}

Keywords

include require include_once require_once namespace

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