Can you provide an example of how to safely and efficiently use dynamic variable names in PHP?

When using dynamic variable names in PHP, it is important to sanitize user input to prevent security vulnerabilities such as code injection. One way to do this is by using an associative array to store dynamic variable names and values. This allows you to safely access and manipulate variables without directly using user input as variable names. 

// Sanitize user input
$user_input = $_POST['user_input'];

// Define an associative array with dynamic variable names
$variables = [
    'variable1' => 'value1',
    'variable2' => 'value2',
    'variable3' => 'value3'
];

// Check if the user input corresponds to a valid variable name
if (array_key_exists($user_input, $variables)) {
    // Access the variable using the associative array
    $value = $variables[$user_input];
    echo $value;
} else {
    echo "Invalid variable name";
}

Keywords

variable variables dynamic variable names PHP security efficiency

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