What role does the file encoding, such as UTF-8 without BOM, play in preventing PHP header modification issues?

When PHP files are saved with a different encoding, such as UTF-8 with BOM (Byte Order Mark), it can cause issues with header modification in PHP scripts. This is because the BOM characters are sent to the output before the headers, leading to errors like "headers already sent." To prevent this issue, it's recommended to save PHP files with UTF-8 encoding without the BOM.

<?php
// Ensure the file is saved with UTF-8 without BOM encoding
header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');
// Your PHP code here
?>