What are the advantages of using cURL over fsockopen for making HTTPS requests in PHP?

When making HTTPS requests in PHP, using cURL is generally preferred over fsockopen due to its higher level of abstraction, better error handling, and support for a wider range of protocols and features. cURL also simplifies the process of sending and receiving data over HTTPS, making it a more efficient and reliable choice for making secure requests.

<?php
// Initialize cURL session
$ch = curl_init();

// Set cURL options for making an HTTPS request
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://example.com");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

// Execute cURL session and store the response
$response = curl_exec($ch);

// Check for cURL errors
if(curl_errno($ch)) {
    echo 'Error: ' . curl_error($ch);
}

// Close cURL session
curl_close($ch);

// Process the response data
echo $response;
?>