In what situations would using a recursive iterator be beneficial for handling file paths in PHP?

When dealing with nested file structures, using a recursive iterator can be beneficial for handling file paths in PHP. This allows you to traverse through directories and subdirectories without having to manually iterate through each level. Recursive iterators simplify the process of accessing files within a directory hierarchy and make it easier to perform operations on a large number of files.

<?php

// Create a RecursiveIteratorIterator to iterate through directories recursively
$iterator = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveDirectoryIterator('/path/to/directory'));

// Loop through the iterator to access each file path
foreach ($iterator as $file) {
    echo $file . PHP_EOL;
}

?>