How can PHP developers avoid potential pitfalls like code injection when generating virtual data for client-side display?

To avoid potential pitfalls like code injection when generating virtual data for client-side display, PHP developers should properly sanitize and validate user input before displaying it on the client-side. This can be achieved by using functions like htmlspecialchars() to escape special characters and prevent code injection attacks.

// Example code snippet to sanitize user input before displaying it on the client-side
$user_input = $_POST['user_input']; // Assuming user input is coming from a form submission

$sanitized_input = htmlspecialchars($user_input, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');

echo $sanitized_input;