This can come in handy when you're dealing with user inputs during a form submission and in most cases, your web application will be using a database query to store the data.

Using filter_var()

This method uses a number of flags to validate and sanitize a string. Here are some examples I have tried:

Removing special characters

Want to strip out all tags and certain characters? Try this:

<?php
$str = "<h1>Hello World</h1>";
$filtered = filter_var($str, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
echo $filtered;
?>

Integer validation

You can check if the input is an integer and if it's a value between 1 and 20:

<?php
$x = 10;
$min = 1;
$max = 20;
$options = [
    "min_range" => $min,
    "max_range" => $max
];

if(!filter_var($x, FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, $options)){
    echo "This input is invalid.";
}
else {
    echo "This input is valid.";
}
?>

URL validation

Want to check if the input is a valid URL? Try this out:

<?php
// Make sure the URL is sanitized
$url = filter_var("https://www.google.com", FILTER_SANITIZE_URL);
if(filter_var($url, FILTER_VALIDATE_URL)){
    echo "This URL is valid.";
}
else {
    echo "This URL is invalid.";
}
?>

Using these in-built features makes it easier for PHP developers to process data from external sources in a safer manner and also adds an extra layer of protection to your web application.

Read more about this method in PHP's official documentation.