What role does the length of the hashed password play in the successful verification process in PHP?

The length of the hashed password is crucial in the successful verification process in PHP because it determines the strength of the password hashing algorithm. A longer hashed password provides better security against brute force attacks and rainbow table attacks. It is recommended to use a strong hashing algorithm like bcrypt and ensure that the hashed password is stored in a database column with sufficient length to accommodate the hash output.

// Example of hashing a password with bcrypt
$password = "secret_password";
$hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_BCRYPT);

// Storing the hashed password in a database column with sufficient length
// For example, if using bcrypt, the length should be at least 60 characters
// Make sure the column type in the database is VARCHAR with a length of 60 or more