What is the purpose of the glob() function in PHP and how can it be effectively used?

The glob() function in PHP is used to retrieve an array of file names or directories that match a specified pattern. This can be useful for tasks such as listing all files in a directory, performing batch operations on files, or searching for specific files based on a pattern.

// Example usage of glob() function to list all text files in a directory
$files = glob('path/to/directory/*.txt');

foreach ($files as $file) {
    echo $file . "<br>";
}