What are some common pitfalls when using text files for storing user data in PHP applications?

One common pitfall is security vulnerabilities, as text files are easily accessible and can be manipulated by users. To address this, it is important to properly sanitize and validate user input before storing it in text files. Additionally, text files may not be suitable for storing large amounts of data efficiently, leading to performance issues. 

// Example of sanitizing user input before storing in a text file
$userData = $_POST['user_data'];
$sanitizedData = filter_var($userData, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
file_put_contents('user_data.txt', $sanitizedData, FILE_APPEND);

Keywords

file handling fopen fwrite fclose security vulnerabilities

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