What are some common pitfalls when using PHP for AJAX requests and how can they be avoided?

One common pitfall when using PHP for AJAX requests is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. To avoid this, always validate and sanitize user input before using it in database queries or outputting it to the browser.

// Example of sanitizing user input in PHP
$user_input = $_POST['user_input'];
$sanitized_input = filter_var($user_input, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);