Is it okay to employ a function that sanitizes the incoming inputs due to a form submission or any other request. It is time saving but the question of effectivenss and efficiency still haunts me. For instance,
function clearSpecialChars($str)
{
$str=htmlentities($str);
$str=strip_tags($str);
$str=mysql_real_escape_string($str);
return $str;
}
so that when I get a form submission I do:
$username=clearSpecialChars($_REQUEST['username']);
$email=clearSpecialChars($_REQUEST['email']);
Fundamentally, I am not desiring any html inputs from the user.