How can simplexml_load_file() be used efficiently in PHP to handle XML data retrieved from a remote server?

When using simplexml_load_file() in PHP to handle XML data retrieved from a remote server, it is important to efficiently manage the retrieval process to prevent performance issues. One way to do this is by using the file_get_contents() function to retrieve the XML data from the remote server before passing it to simplexml_load_file(). This approach helps reduce the number of network requests and improves the overall efficiency of handling XML data.

$url = 'http://example.com/data.xml';
$xml_data = file_get_contents($url);
$xml = simplexml_load_string($xml_data);
// Now $xml contains the parsed XML data from the remote server