What are the potential pitfalls of using functions like array_walk and array_map to clean input data in PHP?

Using functions like array_walk and array_map to clean input data in PHP can be risky because they modify the original array in place, making it difficult to track changes and potentially leading to unexpected behavior. To avoid this issue, it's recommended to create a new array with the cleaned data instead of modifying the original array. 

// Example of using array_map to clean input data safely
$input = ['  John  ', '  Doe  '];

$cleanedData = array_map(function($value) {
    return trim($value); // Trim whitespace from the beginning and end of each value
}, $input);

print_r($cleanedData);

Keywords

array_walk array_map input data data cleaning potential errors

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