How can developers ensure that the output of htmlspecialchars() is properly displayed in the browser, especially when dealing with special characters like "&" or "><"?

Developers can ensure that the output of htmlspecialchars() is properly displayed in the browser by using the htmlspecialchars() function to encode special characters like "&" or "><" before displaying them on the webpage. This prevents the browser from interpreting these characters as HTML tags, ensuring that they are displayed as intended.

&lt;?php
$text = &quot;&lt;script&gt;alert(&#039;XSS attack&#039;);&lt;/script&gt;&quot;;
echo htmlspecialchars($text, ENT_QUOTES, &#039;UTF-8&#039;);
?&gt;