What are the best practices for handling user input validation in PHP to ensure data integrity and security?

User input validation is crucial for ensuring data integrity and security in PHP applications. To handle user input validation effectively, it is recommended to use filters and sanitization functions to validate and sanitize input data. Additionally, implementing server-side validation and using prepared statements for database queries can help prevent SQL injection attacks. 

// Example of handling user input validation in PHP

// Validate and sanitize user input
$username = filter_var($_POST['username'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

// Server-side validation
if(empty($username) || empty($email)) {
    echo "Please fill in all required fields.";
} else {
    // Use prepared statements for database queries
    $stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO users (username, email) VALUES (:username, :email)");
    $stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
    $stmt->bindParam(':email', $email);
    $stmt->execute();
    echo "User data saved successfully.";
}

Keywords

input validation data integrity security PHP functions libraries

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