Are there specific PHP functions or methods that can be used to convert special characters to their HTML entities in a consistent manner?

Special characters in PHP can be converted to their corresponding HTML entities using the `htmlspecialchars()` function. This function will convert characters like `<`, `>`, `&`, `"`, and `'` to their respective HTML entities. This is important when displaying user input on a webpage to prevent XSS attacks and ensure proper rendering of special characters.

$string = "Hello <script>alert('XSS attack')</script>";
$encoded_string = htmlspecialchars($string, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');
echo $encoded_string;