How can the strpos function in PHP be utilized to search for specific characters or strings within a text file?

To search for specific characters or strings within a text file using the strpos function in PHP, you can read the contents of the text file into a string variable and then use the strpos function to search for the desired characters or strings within that string. The strpos function returns the position of the first occurrence of the specified characters or strings, allowing you to determine if they exist within the text file.

$text = file_get_contents('example.txt');
$searchString = 'specific string';
$position = strpos($text, $searchString);

if ($position !== false) {
    echo "The string '$searchString' was found at position $position in the text file.";
} else {
    echo "The string '$searchString' was not found in the text file.";
}