What is the purpose of the "php_value output_handler mb_output_handler" in .htaccess files and how does it affect character encoding?

The purpose of the "php_value output_handler mb_output_handler" directive in .htaccess files is to set the output handler to mb_output_handler for handling multi-byte character encoding in PHP scripts. This directive ensures that the output is correctly encoded and displayed when working with multibyte characters, such as those in languages like Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.

<IfModule mod_php5.c>
    php_value output_handler mb_output_handler
</IfModule>