How can PHP beginners effectively handle file manipulation tasks like including file content in a variable?

To handle file manipulation tasks like including file content in a variable, PHP beginners can use the `file_get_contents()` function. This function reads the entire file into a string variable, allowing for easy manipulation and processing of the file content.

// Read file content into a variable
$file_content = file_get_contents('example.txt');

// Output the file content
echo $file_content;