What are best practices for handling and manipulating URL parameters in PHP?

When handling and manipulating URL parameters in PHP, it is important to properly sanitize and validate user input to prevent security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. One common practice is to use the `$_GET` superglobal array to access and process URL parameters securely.

// Retrieve and sanitize URL parameter
$param = isset($_GET['param']) ? htmlspecialchars($_GET['param']) : '';

// Validate the parameter
if (!empty($param)) {
    // Process the parameter
    // Your code here
} else {
    // Handle missing or invalid parameter
}