How can PHP developers effectively handle path manipulation tasks to ensure code efficiency and maintainability?

PHP developers can effectively handle path manipulation tasks by using built-in functions like `realpath()`, `dirname()`, and `basename()` to ensure code efficiency and maintainability. These functions help in resolving relative paths, extracting directory names, and getting the base name of a file path. By using these functions, developers can avoid manual string manipulation, reduce the risk of errors, and write cleaner and more maintainable code.

// Example code snippet using realpath(), dirname(), and basename() functions
$path = '/path/to/file.txt';

// Get the absolute path
$absolutePath = realpath($path);

// Get the directory name
$directory = dirname($path);

// Get the base name of the file
$filename = basename($path);

echo "Absolute Path: $absolutePath\n";
echo "Directory: $directory\n";
echo "Filename: $filename\n";