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How can the use of htmlentities or htmlspecialchars functions improve PHP code readability and security?

Using htmlentities or htmlspecialchars functions in PHP can improve code readability and security by converting special characters into their HTML entities. This prevents malicious user input from being interpreted as code, thus reducing the risk of cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. Additionally, it helps to ensure that the output is displayed as intended, without breaking the HTML structure.

php 
// Original code without htmlentities or htmlspecialchars
$user_input = "<script>alert('XSS attack');</script>";
echo $user_input;

// Code with htmlentities or htmlspecialchars
$user_input = "<script>alert('XSS attack');</script>";
echo htmlentities($user_input);

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