What best practices should be followed when working with superglobal variables in PHP?

When working with superglobal variables in PHP, it is important to follow best practices to ensure security and maintainability of your code. Some best practices include validating and sanitizing input data from superglobal variables, avoiding direct access to superglobals, and using them only when necessary. 

// Example of best practices when working with superglobal variables in PHP

// Validate and sanitize input data from superglobals
$username = isset($_POST['username']) ? htmlspecialchars($_POST['username']) : '';

// Avoid direct access to superglobals
function getPostData($key) {
    return isset($_POST[$key]) ? $_POST[$key] : '';
}
$username = getPostData('username');

// Use superglobals only when necessary
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST') {
    // Process form data
}

Keywords

$_GET $_POST $_REQUEST $_SESSION $_COOKIE

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