What potential issues can arise when using string manipulation functions like str_replace or explode to extract directory paths in PHP?

When using string manipulation functions like str_replace or explode to extract directory paths in PHP, potential issues can arise if the directory separator is not consistent across different operating systems. To solve this issue, it is recommended to use the PHP predefined constant DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR to ensure the correct separator is used regardless of the operating system.

// Example code snippet to extract directory paths using DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR

$path = "path/to/directory/file.txt";
$directories = explode(DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $path);

foreach($directories as $directory){
    echo $directory . "<br>";
}