In PHP, what best practices should be followed to ensure successful saving of form data to the database and handling potential errors effectively?

To ensure successful saving of form data to the database and handling potential errors effectively in PHP, it is important to follow best practices such as validating input data, using prepared statements to prevent SQL injection, handling database errors gracefully, and providing meaningful error messages to the user.

<?php
// Validate input data from the form
$name = $_POST['name'];
$email = $_POST['email'];

// Connect to the database
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=your_database', 'username', 'password');

// Prepare SQL statement
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES (:name, :email)");

// Bind parameters
$stmt->bindParam(':name', $name);
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $email);

// Execute the statement
if ($stmt->execute()) {
    echo "Data saved successfully!";
} else {
    echo "Error saving data: " . $stmt->errorInfo()[2];
}
?>