What are some common pitfalls to avoid when handling form data in PHP to prevent errors or security vulnerabilities?

One common pitfall to avoid when handling form data in PHP is not properly sanitizing and validating user input. This can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attacks or cross-site scripting. To prevent these issues, always sanitize and validate user input before using it in your application. 

// Example of sanitizing and validating user input
$name = isset($_POST['name']) ? htmlspecialchars($_POST['name']) : '';
$email = isset($_POST['email']) ? filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL) : '';
```

Another common pitfall is not using prepared statements when interacting with a database. This can leave your application vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. To prevent this, always use prepared statements when executing SQL queries with user input.

```php
// Example of using prepared statements
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES (:name, :email)");
$stmt->bindParam(':name', $name);
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $email);
$stmt->execute();

Keywords

SQL injection cross-site scripting data validation htmlspecialchars prepared statements

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