What are the advantages of using cURL in PHP for fetching HTML content compared to other methods?

When fetching HTML content in PHP, using cURL has several advantages over other methods such as file_get_contents or fopen. cURL provides more control and options for handling HTTP requests, including setting headers, handling redirects, and managing cookies. It also allows for better error handling and supports various protocols like HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and more.

// Initialize cURL session
$ch = curl_init();

// Set cURL options
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://www.example.com');
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

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

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

// Close cURL session
curl_close($ch);

// Use the fetched HTML content
echo $response;