What is the role of the "curl" function in PHP when it comes to calling external scripts?

The "curl" function in PHP is used to make HTTP requests to external servers, including calling external scripts. It allows you to retrieve data from a URL, send data to a server, and perform various other HTTP operations. This function is commonly used for integrating with APIs, fetching remote data, or interacting with external services.

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

// Set the URL to fetch
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "http://www.example.com/script.php");

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

// Close cURL session
curl_close($ch);

// Process the response data as needed
echo $response;