In what scenarios would it be more beneficial to use file_get_contents() or fopen() instead of include() in PHP development?

When you need to read the contents of a file and manipulate it as a string, it is more beneficial to use file_get_contents() or fopen() instead of include(). These functions allow you to read the file contents without executing any PHP code within the file, which can be useful when you only need to work with the raw data. 

// Using file_get_contents
$file_contents = file_get_contents('example.txt');
echo $file_contents;

// Using fopen
$file_handle = fopen('example.txt', 'r');
$file_contents = fread($file_handle, filesize('example.txt'));
fclose($file_handle);
echo $file_contents;

Keywords

file_get_contents fopen include PHP development scenarios

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