What steps can be taken to reduce or eliminate "data garbage" when passing variables between PHP and VB.NET?

To reduce or eliminate "data garbage" when passing variables between PHP and VB.NET, it is important to properly sanitize and validate the data being passed. This can be done by using functions like htmlspecialchars() in PHP to prevent XSS attacks and ensuring that the data being passed is of the correct type and format. Additionally, using proper encoding and decoding methods when transferring data between the two languages can help prevent any data corruption.

// Sanitize and validate data before passing it to VB.NET
$clean_data = htmlspecialchars($_POST['variable_name'], ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');

// Encode data before passing it to VB.NET
$encoded_data = base64_encode($clean_data);

// Decode data in VB.NET before processing it
// VB.NET code to decode the data: 
// Dim decodedData As String = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(Convert.FromBase64String(encodedData))