What are the best practices for handling form submissions and processing data in PHP using AJAX?

When handling form submissions and processing data in PHP using AJAX, it is important to sanitize and validate user input to prevent security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks. Additionally, it is recommended to use prepared statements when interacting with a database to further protect against SQL injection. Finally, make sure to properly handle errors and provide meaningful feedback to the user.

<?php
// Sanitize and validate user input
$name = filter_var($_POST['name'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

// Connect to the database
$pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase", "username", "password");

// Prepare and execute a SQL query using prepared statements
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES (:name, :email)");
$stmt->bindParam(':name', $name);
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $email);
$stmt->execute();

// Check for errors and provide feedback to the user
if($stmt) {
    echo "Data submitted successfully!";
} else {
    echo "Error submitting data.";
}
?>