What is the best practice for handling decimal numbers in PHP calculations to avoid losing precision?

When working with decimal numbers in PHP calculations, it is important to use the BCMath functions to handle arithmetic operations on numbers with arbitrary precision. This helps avoid common issues with floating point arithmetic, where precision can be lost due to the way floating point numbers are stored in memory. By using BCMath functions, you can perform accurate calculations with decimal numbers without losing precision.

// Using BCMath functions to perform calculations with decimal numbers
$number1 = '1.23456789';
$number2 = '9.87654321';

$sum = bcadd($number1, $number2, 10); // Adding two numbers
$diff = bcsub($number1, $number2, 10); // Subtracting two numbers
$prod = bcmul($number1, $number2, 10); // Multiplying two numbers
$quot = bcdiv($number1, $number2, 10); // Dividing two numbers

echo "Sum: $sum\n";
echo "Difference: $diff\n";
echo "Product: $prod\n";
echo "Quotient: $quot\n";