What is the significance of casting variables to specific data types in PHP for security purposes?

Casting variables to specific data types in PHP for security purposes helps prevent unexpected behavior and vulnerabilities in your code. By explicitly defining the data type of a variable, you can ensure that only the expected type of data is being processed, reducing the risk of injection attacks or other security threats.

// Example of casting a variable to a specific data type for security purposes
$unsafe_input = $_POST['user_input']; // User input from a form

// Cast the input to an integer data type
$safe_input = (int) $unsafe_input;