How can PHP handle file names with special characters like umlauts?

When handling file names with special characters like umlauts in PHP, it is important to properly encode and decode the file names using functions like urlencode() and urldecode(). This ensures that the special characters are correctly interpreted and processed by the PHP script.

$filename = "file_with_ümlaut.txt";
$encoded_filename = urlencode($filename);

// Use $encoded_filename when working with file operations
// For example, to open the file:
$file_handle = fopen(urldecode($encoded_filename), "r");