What best practices can be followed to ensure proper validation and handling of form data in PHP scripts?

To ensure proper validation and handling of form data in PHP scripts, it is important to sanitize and validate input data to prevent security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks. One common approach is to use PHP's filter_var() function along with appropriate filter flags to validate input data. Additionally, using prepared statements when interacting with a database can help prevent SQL injection attacks. 

// Example of validating and handling form data in PHP

// Sanitize and validate input data
$username = filter_var($_POST['username'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

// Connect to 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 (username, email) VALUES (:username, :email)');
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $email);
$stmt->execute();

// Redirect to a success page
header('Location: success.php');
exit();

Keywords

Sanitize Validation Filter_var htmlspecialchars Error_reporting

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