What are some best practices for handling form data and queries in PHP to avoid errors?

When handling form data and queries in PHP, it is important to properly sanitize and validate the input to prevent SQL injection attacks and other security vulnerabilities. One best practice is to use prepared statements when executing SQL queries to ensure that user input is treated as data and not executable code. Additionally, always validate and sanitize user input before processing it to avoid errors and ensure data integrity.

// Example of using prepared statements to handle form data and queries in PHP

// Establish a database connection
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase', 'username', 'password');

// Prepare a SQL statement with a placeholder for user input
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO users (username, email) VALUES (:username, :email)");

// Bind the sanitized form data to the placeholders
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $_POST['username']);
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $_POST['email']);

// Execute the prepared statement
$stmt->execute();