What best practices should be followed when combining HTML forms and PHP code to create dynamic web applications?

When combining HTML forms and PHP code to create dynamic web applications, it is important to properly sanitize and validate user input to prevent security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks. Additionally, use prepared statements when interacting with a database to prevent SQL injection attacks. Lastly, consider implementing CSRF tokens to prevent cross-site request forgery attacks.

<?php
// Sanitize and validate user input
$username = htmlspecialchars($_POST['username']);
$email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

// Use prepared statements to interact with the database
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO users (username, email) VALUES (:username, :email)");
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $email);
$stmt->execute();

// Implement CSRF tokens
$token = bin2hex(random_bytes(32));
$_SESSION['csrf_token'] = $token;
?>