What are some best practices for handling form data and setting default selections in PHP when using Smarty variables?

When handling form data and setting default selections in PHP with Smarty variables, it is important to properly sanitize and validate the input data to prevent security vulnerabilities. To set default selections in a form, you can use conditional statements to check if the form data exists and assign it to the Smarty variable accordingly.

// Sanitize and validate form data
$formData = $_POST['form_data'] ?? '';

// Set default selection for a dropdown list
$defaultSelection = 'Option 1';

// Check if form data exists and assign it to Smarty variable
$smarty->assign('form_data', $formData ? $formData : $defaultSelection);