What is the best way to convert a URL to an IP address in PHP?

When converting a URL to an IP address in PHP, you can use the `gethostbyname()` function. This function takes a hostname as a parameter and returns the corresponding IP address. It is a simple and effective way to convert a URL to an IP address in PHP.

$url = "www.example.com";
$ip = gethostbyname($url);

echo "The IP address of $url is: $ip";