What best practices can be followed to avoid errors related to serialization and unserialization in PHP?

To avoid errors related to serialization and unserialization in PHP, it is important to ensure that the data being serialized is compatible with PHP's serialization format. This includes avoiding serializing resources or objects with circular references. Additionally, always validate and sanitize data before serializing to prevent potential security vulnerabilities.

// Example of validating and sanitizing data before serialization
$data = ['key' => 'value'];

// Validate and sanitize data
if (is_array($data)) {
    $serialized_data = serialize($data);
    // Store or transmit serialized data
}