What potential issues can arise from using backslashes in path references in PHP?

Using backslashes in path references in PHP can cause issues because backslashes are used as escape characters in PHP strings. This can lead to unexpected behavior or errors when trying to access files or directories. To avoid this issue, it is recommended to use forward slashes in path references instead.

// Incorrect usage of backslashes in path reference
$path = 'C:\xampp\htdocs\example.php';

// Corrected path reference using forward slashes
$path = 'C:/xampp/htdocs/example.php';