What is the significance of htmlspecialchars() in PHP

PHP, htmlspecialchars, web security, XSS prevention, HTML entities

The htmlspecialchars() function in PHP converts special characters to HTML entities to prevent XSS attacks and ensure safe display of user input.


        <?php
        $string = "This is a test of htmlspecialchars()!";
        // Convert special characters to HTML entities
        $safe_string = htmlspecialchars($string, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8');
        echo $safe_string; // Output: This is a <strong>test</strong> of htmlspecialchars()!
        ?>