In PHP, what are the recommended methods for validating and sanitizing user input from $_POST before inserting it into a database?

When inserting user input from $_POST into a database, it is crucial to validate and sanitize the data to prevent SQL injection attacks and ensure data integrity. Recommended methods for this include using filter_input() or filter_var() functions to validate input and using prepared statements with parameter binding to sanitize and insert data into the database.

// Validate and sanitize user input from $_POST
$name = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'name', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'email', FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

// Prepare and execute a SQL statement using prepared statements
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES (:name, :email)");
$stmt->bindParam(':name', $name);
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $email);
$stmt->execute();