What is the purpose of escaping characters in PHP code?

Escaping characters in PHP code is necessary when you want to include special characters within a string without causing syntax errors. This is particularly important when dealing with strings that contain quotes, backslashes, or other special characters that have a special meaning in PHP. By escaping these characters, you can ensure that they are treated as literal characters rather than as part of the PHP code.

// Example of escaping characters in PHP code
$specialString = "This is a string with a \"quote\" and a backslash \\";
echo $specialString;