What best practices should be followed to avoid the "headers already sent by" error in PHP?

The "headers already sent by" error in PHP occurs when output is sent to the browser before headers are set. To avoid this error, make sure that no content is echoed or printed before calling functions like header() or setcookie(). It's also important to check for any whitespace before the opening <?php tag in your PHP files.

&lt;?php
ob_start(); // Start output buffering

// Your PHP code here

ob_end_flush(); // Flush the output buffer