What is the significance of the chdir function in the context of the code provided?

The significance of the chdir function in the provided code is that it changes the current directory to the specified directory. This is important when working with files or directories in PHP, as it allows you to easily navigate and access files in different directories.

// Change directory to the specified path
chdir('/path/to/directory');

// Now you can work with files in the new directory
$file = 'example.txt';
$contents = file_get_contents($file);
echo $contents;