How can the functions stripslashes and addslashes be used to address login problems with special characters in PHP?

Special characters in usernames or passwords can cause login issues in PHP due to the way they are handled. The functions stripslashes and addslashes can be used to address this problem by removing or adding slashes to escape special characters, ensuring that the input is properly formatted for secure login processes.

$username = addslashes($_POST['username']);
$password = addslashes($_POST['password']);

// Perform login authentication using the sanitized username and password