How can the use of htmlentities() and htmlspecialchars() impact the filtering process of user input in PHP?

Using htmlentities() and htmlspecialchars() can help prevent Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks by converting potentially harmful characters in user input into their HTML entity equivalents. This helps to ensure that user input is displayed as plain text rather than being interpreted as HTML or JavaScript code. By incorporating these functions into the filtering process of user input in PHP, you can enhance the security of your application and protect against malicious attacks.

$user_input = "<script>alert('XSS Attack!');</script>";
$filtered_input = htmlspecialchars($user_input);
echo $filtered_input;