What potential pitfalls should be considered when passing arrays between classes in PHP?

When passing arrays between classes in PHP, potential pitfalls to consider include unintentionally modifying the original array, lack of type checking leading to unexpected behavior, and potential security vulnerabilities if the array contains sensitive data. To mitigate these risks, consider passing a copy of the array instead of the original, enforcing type checking on the array elements, and sanitizing input data before passing it between classes. 

class MyClass {
    public function processArray(array $inputArray) {
        // Make a copy of the input array to prevent unintentional modifications
        $arrayCopy = $inputArray;

        // Perform type checking on array elements
        foreach ($arrayCopy as $element) {
            if (!is_string($element)) {
                throw new InvalidArgumentException('Array elements must be strings');
            }
        }

        // Sanitize input data before further processing
        foreach ($arrayCopy as &$element) {
            $element = htmlspecialchars($element);
        }

        // Further processing of the sanitized array
    }
}

Keywords

type hinting object-oriented programming serialization deserialization data validation

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