How can PHP developers effectively validate and process user input, such as email addresses, before sending them in HTTP requests to web services?

To effectively validate and process user input, such as email addresses, before sending them in HTTP requests to web services, PHP developers can use built-in functions like filter_var() with the FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL filter to validate email addresses. Additionally, they can sanitize input using functions like htmlspecialchars() to prevent XSS attacks.

$email = $_POST['email'];

// Validate email address
if (!filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
    // Handle invalid email address
    echo "Invalid email address";
} else {
    // Sanitize input
    $sanitized_email = htmlspecialchars($email);

    // Proceed with sending the email address in HTTP request
}