What are the best practices for handling form data in PHP when using Ajax for data submission?

When handling form data in PHP using Ajax for data submission, it is important to properly sanitize and validate the input to prevent SQL injection and other security vulnerabilities. Additionally, you should use prepared statements when interacting with the database to further protect against attacks. Finally, make sure to handle any errors or exceptions that may occur during the form submission process.

<?php
// Sanitize and validate form data
$name = filter_var($_POST['name'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);

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

// Handle any errors that may occur during the form submission process
if($stmt){
    echo "Form data submitted successfully!";
} else {
    echo "An error occurred while submitting form data.";
}
?>