What best practices should be followed when implementing error handling in PHP code for form submissions?

When implementing error handling in PHP code for form submissions, it is important to validate user input to prevent malicious attacks and ensure data integrity. Use conditional statements to check for errors and display appropriate error messages to the user. Additionally, sanitize and validate input data before processing it to prevent SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks.

// Example of implementing error handling in PHP code for form submissions

// Check if the form is submitted
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
    
    // Validate input fields
    $name = $_POST["name"];
    if (empty($name)) {
        $error = "Name is required";
    }
    
    $email = $_POST["email"];
    if (!filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
        $error = "Invalid email format";
    }
    
    // If no errors, process the form data
    if (empty($error)) {
        // Sanitize input data
        $name = htmlspecialchars($name);
        $email = filter_var($email, FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);
        
        // Process the form data
        // Insert into database, send email, etc.
    } else {
        echo $error; // Display error message to the user
    }
}