Date: 04/20/06 (WebDesign)    Keywords: php, programming

I just finished my second semester as a Comp. Sci major, completing a course on basic Programming. We also learned some C++.
During the C++ portions of the program, we occasionally used *.DAT files to store information wihich could be called by the main program.
I was wondering if there was any equivalent for PHP, which I've just started learning. To spell it out; is there any way to store information in non-PHP files which PHP can call from and write to? If so, what are these files?

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/webdesign/1098673.html