How can PHP developers ensure that special characters like "<" and ">" are properly handled in form inputs to prevent unexpected behavior in the browser?

Special characters like "<" and ">" can be properly handled in form inputs by using the htmlspecialchars() function in PHP. This function converts these special characters into their respective HTML entities, preventing them from being interpreted as HTML tags by the browser. By using htmlspecialchars() when displaying form input data on a webpage, PHP developers can ensure that these characters are safely rendered without causing unexpected behavior. 

// Retrieve form input data
$userInput = $_POST[&#039;user_input&#039;];

// Sanitize input to prevent XSS attacks
$sanitizedInput = htmlspecialchars($userInput);

// Display sanitized input
echo $sanitizedInput;

Keywords

htmlspecialchars htmlentities XSS input validation escaping

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