What is the purpose of using fseek() in PHP file handling?

When working with files in PHP, fseek() is used to move the file pointer to a specific position within the file. This allows you to read or write data at a specific location within the file, rather than just at the beginning or end. fseek() is particularly useful when you need to navigate through a file and access specific parts of its contents.

$file = fopen("example.txt", "r");

// Move the file pointer to the 10th byte from the beginning of the file
fseek($file, 10);

// Read the next 20 bytes from the current file pointer position
$data = fread($file, 20);

echo $data;

fclose($file);