What best practices should be followed when converting strings to UTF-8 in PHP?

When converting strings to UTF-8 in PHP, it is important to ensure that the input string is properly encoded to prevent character encoding issues. One best practice is to use the mb_convert_encoding() function with the appropriate parameters to convert the string to UTF-8. Additionally, setting the internal encoding to UTF-8 using mb_internal_encoding() can help ensure consistent encoding throughout the script.

// Convert a string to UTF-8
$inputString = "Some string with different encoding";
$utf8String = mb_convert_encoding($inputString, 'UTF-8', 'auto');

// Set internal encoding to UTF-8
mb_internal_encoding('UTF-8');