How can PHP developers ensure correct display of HTML content stored in a database without it being rendered as HTML on the webpage?

When HTML content is stored in a database and retrieved by PHP developers, it may be rendered as HTML on the webpage, potentially causing security vulnerabilities like cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. To prevent this, PHP developers can use the htmlspecialchars() function to escape special characters in the HTML content before displaying it on the webpage. 

<?php
// Retrieve HTML content from the database
$htmlContent = "<p>This is some <b>HTML</b> content</p>";

// Escape special characters in the HTML content
$escapedContent = htmlspecialchars($htmlContent);

// Display the escaped HTML content on the webpage
echo $escapedContent;
?>

Keywords

htmlspecialchars htmlentities strip_tags escaping sanitization

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