What are some best practices for handling checkbox values in PHP forms and storing them in a database?

When handling checkbox values in PHP forms and storing them in a database, it's important to ensure that unchecked checkboxes are still submitted with a default value, such as 0, to differentiate them from checked checkboxes. This can be achieved by using isset() or empty() functions to check if the checkbox is checked, and then assigning a value accordingly before storing it in the database.

// Assuming a checkbox with name 'checkbox_name' in the form
$checkbox_value = isset($_POST['checkbox_name']) ? 1 : 0;

// Store the checkbox value in the database
// Assuming $conn is the database connection
$query = "INSERT INTO table_name (checkbox_column) VALUES ('$checkbox_value')";
mysqli_query($conn, $query);