What are the potential pitfalls of using the include function in PHP for variables and arrays?

One potential pitfall of using the include function in PHP for variables and arrays is that the included file may not return the expected data structure, leading to errors or unexpected behavior in the main script. To avoid this issue, it is recommended to use the require function instead, which will throw a fatal error if the included file is not found or cannot be included. 

<?php
// Instead of using include, use require to ensure the included file is necessary for the script to run
require 'data.php';

// Now you can safely access variables and arrays from the included file
echo $variable;
print_r($array);
?>

Keywords

include PHP variables arrays scope security

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