What best practices should be followed when manipulating arrays in PHP to prevent errors and ensure smooth functionality?

When manipulating arrays in PHP, it is important to follow best practices to prevent errors and ensure smooth functionality. One common issue is accessing array elements without checking if they exist, which can lead to undefined index errors. To avoid this, always check if the array key exists before accessing it using functions like isset() or array_key_exists(). Additionally, use array functions like array_push(), array_pop(), array_shift(), and array_unshift() to add or remove elements from arrays safely. 

// Example of adding an element to an array safely
$myArray = [];
$newElement = 'value';

if (!isset($myArray['key'])) {
    $myArray['key'] = $newElement;
}

Keywords

array manipulation error prevention PHP functions smooth functionality best practices

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