What is the importance of using $_SESSION in PHP for managing user login status?

Using $_SESSION in PHP for managing user login status is important because it allows you to store user information securely on the server-side. This helps in maintaining the user's login status across different pages of the website without the need to repeatedly authenticate the user. By using $_SESSION, you can easily check if a user is logged in or not and restrict access to certain pages or functionalities accordingly.

// Start the session
session_start();

// Check if the user is logged in
if(isset($_SESSION['user_id'])) {
    // User is logged in
    echo "Welcome, ".$_SESSION['username']."!";
} else {
    // User is not logged in
    echo "Please log in to access this page.";
}