What are the potential pitfalls of using utf8_encode and utf8_decode in data processing?

Using utf8_encode and utf8_decode can lead to unexpected results when dealing with characters outside of the ASCII range, as these functions are not capable of handling all UTF-8 characters properly. It is recommended to use mb_convert_encoding instead, which provides better support for multibyte character sets.

// Use mb_convert_encoding instead of utf8_encode and utf8_decode
$utf8_encoded_string = "Some string with UTF-8 characters";
$utf8_encoded_string = mb_convert_encoding($utf8_encoded_string, 'UTF-8', 'UTF-8');