How can PHP developers ensure proper data validation and sanitization when passing variables between different pages in an application?

To ensure proper data validation and sanitization when passing variables between different pages in a PHP application, developers should use functions like filter_input() to validate input data and htmlentities() to sanitize output data. By validating input data and sanitizing output data, developers can prevent security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks.

// Validate input data
$username = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'username', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'email', FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

// Sanitize output data
echo htmlentities($username);
echo htmlentities($email);