How can PHP handle file paths in a way that is independent of drive letters?

PHP can handle file paths in a drive letter-independent way by using the `DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR` constant to represent the directory separator in a platform-independent manner. By using this constant instead of hardcoding the directory separator, PHP code can work seamlessly across different operating systems without needing to worry about drive letters.

// Example of handling file paths in a drive letter-independent way
$path = 'C:' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'example' . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'file.txt';
echo $path;