How can PHP developers effectively handle cases where a user input may contain special characters or unexpected values that could impact array operations?

PHP developers can effectively handle cases where user input may contain special characters or unexpected values by sanitizing the input data before performing array operations. This can be done using functions like `htmlspecialchars()` or `filter_var()` to clean the input and ensure it does not contain harmful characters that could impact array operations.

// Sanitize user input before using it in array operations
$userInput = $_POST['user_input']; // Assuming user input is coming from a form

// Sanitize the user input using htmlspecialchars
$sanitizedInput = htmlspecialchars($userInput);

// Perform array operations using the sanitized input
$array = ['apple', 'banana', 'cherry'];
if (in_array($sanitizedInput, $array)) {
    echo "Input found in array";
} else {
    echo "Input not found in array";
}