What best practices should PHP developers follow when working with user input from forms, as seen in the example with $_REQUEST['name']?

When working with user input from forms, PHP developers should always sanitize and validate the data to prevent security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. One common practice is to use functions like filter_input() or htmlspecialchars() to sanitize input and ensure it is safe to use in your application. Additionally, validating the input against expected formats or ranges can help ensure data integrity.

$name = isset($_REQUEST['name']) ? htmlspecialchars($_REQUEST['name']) : '';