What is a common practice for validating form data in PHP?

Validating form data in PHP is a common practice to ensure that the data submitted by users is in the correct format and meets certain criteria. One way to do this is by using PHP functions like `filter_var()` to validate input fields such as email addresses, URLs, and numbers. Additionally, regular expressions can be used to validate more complex data patterns like phone numbers or passwords.

// Example of validating an email address using filter_var()
$email = $_POST['email'];

if (filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
    echo "Email is valid";
} else {
    echo "Invalid email";
}