What is the purpose of session_start() in PHP and why is it important for maintaining sessions?

The purpose of session_start() in PHP is to initialize a new session or resume an existing session. It is important for maintaining sessions as it allows you to store and retrieve session data across multiple pages on a website. Without session_start(), session variables would not persist between different pages of a website.

<?php
// Start the session
session_start();

// Now you can set session variables
$_SESSION['username'] = 'JohnDoe';
$_SESSION['email'] = 'johndoe@example.com';
?>