What is the significance of the "fopen" function in PHP when working with files?

The "fopen" function in PHP is significant when working with files as it allows you to open a file for reading, writing, or appending data. This function returns a file pointer resource on success or false on failure, which can be used to perform various file operations like reading, writing, or closing the file.

// Open a file for writing
$file = fopen("example.txt", "w");

// Check if the file was opened successfully
if ($file) {
    // Write data to the file
    fwrite($file, "Hello, World!");

    // Close the file
    fclose($file);
} else {
    echo "Failed to open file.";
}