What role does debugging play in PHP programming, and what are some effective strategies for debugging PHP code to identify and fix errors?
Debugging plays a crucial role in PHP programming to identify and fix errors in the code. Some effective strategies for debugging PHP code include using tools like Xdebug, printing out variables and values using echo or var_dump, using error reporting functions like error_log, and utilizing logging libraries like Monolog.
// Example of using var_dump to print out variable values for debugging
$variable = "Hello, World!";
var_dump($variable);