What are the advantages and disadvantages of using strip_tags and addslashes functions in PHP to sanitize data retrieved from a database before outputting it in a script?
When retrieving data from a database in PHP, it is important to sanitize the data before outputting it to prevent potential security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attacks or cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. Two common functions used for sanitizing data are `strip_tags` and `addslashes`. Advantages of using `strip_tags`: 1. It removes HTML and PHP tags from the data, preventing potential XSS attacks. 2. It helps to ensure that only plain text is displayed to the user, reducing the risk of unintended code execution. Disadvantages of using `strip_tags`: 1. It may remove legitimate content that contains HTML tags, affecting the display of the data. 2. It does not protect against SQL injection attacks, so additional measures may be needed. Advantages of using `addslashes`: 1. It escapes special characters, making the data safe to use in SQL queries and preventing SQL injection attacks. 2. It helps to ensure that the data is properly formatted for database storage. Disadvantages of using `addslashes`: 1. It may not be sufficient protection against all types of SQL injection attacks, especially in more complex scenarios. 2. It can lead to data corruption if not used correctly, as it can affect the formatting of the data.
// Retrieve data from the database
$data = $row['column_name'];
// Sanitize the data using strip_tags and addslashes
$sanitized_data = addslashes(strip_tags($data));
// Output the sanitized data
echo $sanitized_data;
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