What potential pitfalls should PHP beginners be aware of when working with conditional statements?

One potential pitfall for PHP beginners when working with conditional statements is forgetting to use double equals (==) for comparison instead of a single equals sign (=) which is used for assignment. This mistake can lead to unintended consequences in the code logic. To avoid this issue, always double-check your conditional statements to ensure you are using the correct comparison operator.

// Incorrect comparison using assignment operator
$number = 5;
if($number = 5) {
    echo "Number is 5";
}

// Correct comparison using double equals operator
$number = 5;
if($number == 5) {
    echo "Number is 5";
}