What is the purpose of using strip_tags in PHP to reduce HTML and PHP tags in form inputs before saving them to a database?
When saving form inputs to a database, it is important to sanitize the data to prevent potential security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attacks. Using the `strip_tags` function in PHP helps reduce HTML and PHP tags from the input, ensuring that only plain text is stored in the database.
// Sanitize form input before saving to database
$input = "<p>This is a <b>test</b> input</p>";
$clean_input = strip_tags($input);
// Save $clean_input to the database
// Example: $query = "INSERT INTO table_name (column_name) VALUES ('$clean_input')";