What are some potential pitfalls of manually filtering user inputs in PHP, as seen in the provided code snippet?

Manually filtering user inputs in PHP can be error-prone and time-consuming, as it requires handling various edge cases and potential security vulnerabilities. It is also not a scalable solution when dealing with a large number of inputs. To solve this issue, it is recommended to use PHP's built-in filter_input function, which provides a more robust and secure way to filter user inputs. 

```php
// Using filter_input to sanitize user input
$username = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'username', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'email', FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);
```
In this code snippet, we are using the filter_input function to sanitize the 'username' and 'email' inputs received via POST method. This approach ensures that the inputs are properly sanitized and reduces the risk of security vulnerabilities.

Keywords

SQL injection cross-site scripting htmlentities filter_var validation

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