What are some best practices for handling user input validation and data sanitization in PHP forms to prevent database overload?

When handling user input validation and data sanitization in PHP forms, it is important to prevent database overload by properly filtering and validating user input before inserting it into the database. This can be achieved by using functions like filter_var() to sanitize input and prevent SQL injection attacks. Additionally, using prepared statements with parameterized queries can help prevent database overload and improve security.

// Example of validating and sanitizing user input before inserting into the database
$user_input = $_POST['user_input'];

// Validate user input
if (!filter_var($user_input, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
    echo "Invalid email format";
    exit;
}

// Sanitize user input
$clean_input = filter_var($user_input, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Insert sanitized input into the database using prepared statements
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO table_name (column_name) VALUES (:user_input)");
$stmt->bindParam(':user_input', $clean_input);
$stmt->execute();