What are some best practices for handling step-by-step validation processes in PHP code?

When handling step-by-step validation processes in PHP code, it is important to break down the validation into individual steps to ensure that each step is completed successfully before moving on to the next. This can help prevent errors and ensure that the data being validated is accurate. One way to implement this is by using conditional statements to check each validation step and only proceed if the previous step was successful.

// Step-by-step validation process example
$data = $_POST['data'];

// Step 1: Check if data is not empty
if (!empty($data)) {
    // Step 2: Validate data format
    if (filter_var($data, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
        // Step 3: Additional validation steps
        // Add more validation steps here as needed
        echo "Validation successful!";
    } else {
        echo "Invalid data format";
    }
} else {
    echo "Data is empty";
}