What potential pitfalls should be aware of when using the bitwise operator in PHP?

One potential pitfall when using bitwise operators in PHP is forgetting to use parentheses to group bitwise operations properly. This can lead to unexpected results due to the operator precedence in PHP. To avoid this issue, always use parentheses to explicitly define the order of operations when working with bitwise operators.

// Incorrect: forgetting to use parentheses
$result = $a & $b | $c;

// Correct: using parentheses to group bitwise operations
$result = ($a & $b) | $c;