How can a developer safely handle user input data in PHP?

Developers can safely handle user input data in PHP by using functions like `htmlspecialchars()` to escape special characters and prevent XSS attacks, `mysqli_real_escape_string()` to prevent SQL injection attacks, and `filter_var()` to validate input data. It is also important to sanitize and validate user input before using it in queries or displaying it on a webpage. 

// Example of sanitizing user input using htmlspecialchars()
$user_input = "<script>alert('XSS attack');</script>";
$sanitized_input = htmlspecialchars($user_input, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');
echo $sanitized_input;

Keywords

input validation data sanitization SQL injection cross-site scripting filter_var

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