What is the significance of using str_replace function in PHP to address formatting issues in text files?
When dealing with text files in PHP, formatting issues such as unwanted characters or incorrect spacing may arise. The str_replace function in PHP can be used to address these issues by replacing specific substrings within a string with another substring. This allows for easy manipulation of text content to ensure proper formatting.
// Example of using str_replace to remove unwanted characters from a text file
$file_contents = file_get_contents('example.txt');
$cleaned_contents = str_replace("\n", "", $file_contents); // Remove newline characters
file_put_contents('cleaned_example.txt', $cleaned_contents);