How can PHP be used to read and process XML files effectively?

To read and process XML files effectively in PHP, you can use the SimpleXML extension, which provides a simple and easy way to handle XML data. You can use SimpleXML functions like simplexml_load_file() to load an XML file into a SimpleXMLElement object, and then navigate through the XML structure using object-oriented syntax to extract the data you need.

// Load the XML file
$xml = simplexml_load_file('data.xml');

// Access elements and attributes in the XML file
foreach($xml->children() as $child) {
    echo $child->getName() . ": " . $child . "<br>";
}