When working with forms in PHP, what are some recommended methods for validating and sanitizing user input to prevent SQL injection attacks?

To prevent SQL injection attacks when working with forms in PHP, it is recommended to validate and sanitize user input using functions like `filter_var()` and `mysqli_real_escape_string()`. This helps to ensure that any user input is properly formatted and safe to use in database queries.

// Validate and sanitize user input to prevent SQL injection
$username = filter_var($_POST['username'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);

// Escape user input before using in SQL query
$username = mysqli_real_escape_string($connection, $username);
$email = mysqli_real_escape_string($connection, $email);

// Use the sanitized input in your SQL query
$query = "INSERT INTO users (username, email) VALUES ('$username', '$email')";
mysqli_query($connection, $query);