What is the function stripslashes() used for in PHP and how can it help with text formatting issues?

When text is submitted through a form or retrieved from a database in PHP, it may contain backslashes (\) before certain characters, such as single quotes ('), double quotes ("), and backslashes themselves. This can cause formatting issues when displaying the text, as the backslashes may appear in the output. The stripslashes() function in PHP is used to remove these backslashes from a string, helping to ensure that the text is displayed correctly without any unwanted characters.

$text_with_backslashes = "It\'s a beautiful day!";
$clean_text = stripslashes($text_with_backslashes);

echo $clean_text;