What are some best practices for efficiently utilizing PHP functions like htmlentities() and decoding functions?

When using PHP functions like htmlentities() to encode special characters in a string, it is important to also decode the encoded string when needed. This can be done using functions like html_entity_decode(). By efficiently utilizing these encoding and decoding functions, you can ensure that your data is properly sanitized and displayed without any unexpected characters. 

// Encoding a string using htmlentities()
$originalString = "Hello, <b>world</b>!";
$encodedString = htmlentities($originalString);

// Decoding the encoded string using html_entity_decode()
$decodedString = html_entity_decode($encodedString);

echo $decodedString; // Output: Hello, <b>world</b>!

Keywords

PHP functions htmlentities() decoding functions security data sanitization

Related Questions