How can developers handle encoding or decoding issues that may affect the effectiveness of addslashes() in PHP?

Developers can handle encoding or decoding issues by using appropriate functions to ensure that the data is properly escaped before applying addslashes(). One common approach is to use htmlspecialchars() to encode the data before adding slashes. This helps prevent issues with special characters that can affect the effectiveness of addslashes().

$data = htmlspecialchars($data, ENT_QUOTES);
$data = addslashes($data);