What are some best practices for handling form input validation in PHP?

When handling form input validation in PHP, it is important to validate user input to ensure data integrity and security. Some best practices include using PHP's built-in filter functions, validating input against expected data types, and sanitizing input to prevent SQL injection attacks.

// Example of handling form input validation in PHP

// Validate input using PHP's filter functions
$email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);
if (!$email) {
    // Handle invalid email input
}

// Validate input against expected data types
$age = filter_var($_POST['age'], FILTER_VALIDATE_INT);
if (!$age) {
    // Handle invalid age input
}

// Sanitize input to prevent SQL injection attacks
$username = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['username']);
$password = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['password']);

// Perform further validation and processing of input