Are there any best practices for retrieving and handling data from dropdown lists in PHP forms for database operations?

When retrieving and handling data from dropdown lists in PHP forms for database operations, it is important to sanitize and validate the input to prevent SQL injection attacks and ensure data integrity. One best practice is to use prepared statements when inserting or updating data in the database to securely handle user input from dropdown lists.

// Retrieve and sanitize data from dropdown list
$selectedOption = isset($_POST['dropdown']) ? filter_var($_POST['dropdown'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING) : '';

// Prepare SQL statement using prepared statements
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO table_name (column_name) VALUES (:selectedOption)");
$stmt->bindParam(':selectedOption', $selectedOption, PDO::PARAM_STR);

// Execute the SQL statement
$stmt->execute();