What are common pitfalls when using PHP to save values in XML files?

One common pitfall when using PHP to save values in XML files is not properly escaping special characters, which can lead to invalid XML syntax. To solve this issue, you should use PHP's `htmlspecialchars()` function to escape special characters before saving the values to the XML file.

// Example code snippet to save values in XML files with proper character escaping

// Sample data to be saved in XML file
$data = [
    'name' => '<John Doe>',
    'age' => 25,
];

// Create a new XML document
$xml = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'utf-8');
$xml->formatOutput = true;

// Create root element
$root = $xml->createElement('person');
$xml->appendChild($root);

// Loop through data and add elements to XML
foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
    $element = $xml->createElement($key, htmlspecialchars($value));
    $root->appendChild($element);
}

// Save XML to file
$xml->save('data.xml');