How can the functions addslashes and stripslashes be used to prevent data insertion issues in PHP applications?
The functions addslashes and stripslashes can be used to prevent data insertion issues in PHP applications by escaping special characters that could potentially be used for SQL injection attacks. addslashes adds backslashes to characters like quotes, while stripslashes removes these backslashes before displaying the data. By using these functions, developers can ensure that user input is properly sanitized before being inserted into a database.
// Using addslashes to escape special characters before inserting data into the database
$user_input = "John's comment";
$escaped_input = addslashes($user_input);
// Insert $escaped_input into the database
// When retrieving data from the database, use stripslashes to remove the added slashes
$retrieved_data = "John\'s comment";
$original_data = stripslashes($retrieved_data);
// Display $original_data to the user