What is the significance of operator associativity in PHP and how does it affect code execution?

Operator associativity in PHP determines the order in which operators of the same precedence are evaluated in an expression. This affects code execution by determining the grouping of operands when multiple operators are used in an expression. It is important to understand operator associativity to ensure that expressions are evaluated correctly.

// Example of using parentheses to control operator associativity
$result = (5 + 3) * 2; // This will evaluate to 16