How can PHP beginners avoid common errors when manipulating file contents, such as unexpected T_STRING errors?

When manipulating file contents in PHP, beginners should be careful with syntax errors such as unexpected T_STRING errors, which typically occur when there's a missing or misplaced quotation mark in the code. To avoid this, make sure to properly escape any special characters within the file contents before manipulating them. Additionally, always use appropriate file handling functions like fopen, fwrite, and fclose to ensure proper file operations.

$file = fopen("example.txt", "r");
if ($file) {
    while (($line = fgets($file)) !== false) {
        // Process the file contents here
        echo $line;
    }
    fclose($file);
} else {
    echo "Error opening file";
}