How can PHP developers ensure data integrity and consistency when pulling information from external sources for display on their websites?

To ensure data integrity and consistency when pulling information from external sources for display on websites, PHP developers can validate and sanitize the data before using it. This involves checking the data for any malicious code, ensuring it meets the expected format, and possibly using prepared statements to prevent SQL injection attacks.

// Example code snippet for validating and sanitizing data from an external source
$rawData = $_GET['data']; // Assuming data is coming from a GET request

// Validate and sanitize the data
$cleanData = filter_var($rawData, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Use the sanitized data in your application
echo $cleanData;