What are the advantages of using cURL over file_get_contents for making HTTP requests in PHP?

cURL is preferred over file_get_contents for making HTTP requests in PHP due to its flexibility, robustness, and better performance. cURL offers more options and control over the request, supports various protocols, handles errors more gracefully, and allows for parallel requests. It is the recommended choice for making HTTP requests in PHP.

// Using cURL to make an HTTP request
$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://api.example.com/data');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

if($response === false){
    echo 'Error: ' . curl_error($ch);
} else {
    echo $response;
}