What are some common validation techniques to ensure the integrity of user input before processing it in PHP?

When processing user input in PHP, it is crucial to validate the data to ensure its integrity and security. Some common validation techniques include using built-in PHP functions like filter_var() to sanitize and validate input, regular expressions to match specific patterns, and custom validation functions to check for specific conditions.

// Example of using filter_var() to validate an email address input
$email = $_POST['email'];

if (filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
    // Email is valid, proceed with processing
} else {
    // Invalid email address, handle error
}