Why does the placement of the session_start() function matter in PHP code?

The placement of the session_start() function matters in PHP code because it needs to be called before any output is sent to the browser. If session_start() is called after any output, it will result in an error message like "Headers already sent." To solve this issue, simply ensure that session_start() is called at the beginning of your PHP script, before any HTML or whitespace.

<?php
session_start();

// Rest of your PHP code goes here
?>