How can the presence of hexadecimal values, such as \xFF, impact PHP functions like file_get_contents() or fread()?

When dealing with hexadecimal values like \xFF in PHP functions like file_get_contents() or fread(), it can cause issues with reading or processing the file content correctly. To solve this problem, you can use the 'b' mode flag in fopen() function to open the file in binary mode. This will ensure that the file is read as binary data without interpreting any special characters.

$file = fopen('example.txt', 'rb');
$content = fread($file, filesize('example.txt'));
fclose($file);

echo $content;