What functions in PHP can be utilized to read and manipulate data from .txt files effectively?

To read and manipulate data from .txt files in PHP, you can use functions like `file_get_contents()` to read the contents of a file into a string, `file_put_contents()` to write data to a file, `fopen()` to open a file, `fread()` to read from an open file, and `fwrite()` to write to an open file. These functions allow you to easily read and manipulate data from .txt files in PHP.

// Read contents of a .txt file
$file_contents = file_get_contents('example.txt');

// Write data to a .txt file
$data = "Hello, World!";
file_put_contents('example.txt', $data);

// Open a .txt file
$file = fopen('example.txt', 'r');

// Read from an open file
while(!feof($file)) {
  $line = fgets($file);
  echo $line;
}

// Write to an open file
fwrite($file, "New data");

// Close the file
fclose($file);