What are best practices for handling form submissions in PHP to avoid errors like missing input validation or syntax errors?

When handling form submissions in PHP, it is crucial to validate user input to prevent errors like missing data or syntax issues. One way to ensure proper validation is to use PHP functions like filter_input() or isset() to check for the presence of form fields and sanitize input data. Additionally, using prepared statements with PDO or mysqli to interact with a database can help prevent SQL injection attacks. 

// Example of handling a form submission in PHP with input validation

// Check if the form was submitted
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
    
    // Validate input fields
    $name = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'name', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
    $email = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'email', FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);
    
    // Check if required fields are not empty
    if (empty($name) || empty($email)) {
        echo "Please fill out all required fields.";
    } else {
        // Process the form submission
        // Insert data into database using prepared statements
        // Redirect to a thank you page
    }
}

Keywords

form submissions input validation syntax errors PHP functions error handling

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