What are some common methods in PHP to handle special characters like \n in database outputs?

Special characters like \n in database outputs can be handled in PHP by using functions like htmlspecialchars() or htmlentities() to encode the special characters before displaying them on the webpage. This helps prevent issues with formatting and potential security vulnerabilities. Another common method is to use the nl2br() function to convert newline characters (\n) to HTML line breaks (<br>) for proper display on the webpage.

// Example of using htmlspecialchars() to handle special characters in database output
$databaseOutput = "This is a string with special characters like <script>alert('XSS attack');</script> and \n newline characters.";
$encodedOutput = htmlspecialchars($databaseOutput);
echo $encodedOutput;

// Example of using nl2br() to handle newline characters in database output
$databaseOutput = "This is a string with \n newline characters.";
$convertedOutput = nl2br($databaseOutput);
echo $convertedOutput;