Verify a php variable if there is a javascript code

Question

I have some variables in PHP (strings) and I vould like to check if inside of those strings I have some javascript code. If so, I would like to make this code inactive and be displayed as string on the website, not to be executed as javascript code.

This will be a kind of security method.

Is there a method to do it in php? If you could give me an example, it's even better.

Thank you very much for your help.

Answer 1

You should be using htmlspecialchars() for any content you output into HTML. It escapes any HTML entities so that they are not taken literally. For example, < becomes <. This also solves your problem.

http://php.net/manual/en/function.htmlspecialchars.php

Answer 2

In addition to Brad's answer, consider reading the first answer here for a short summary and then the therein mentioned article afterwards.

This can help you to easily avoid outputting unsafe strings by accident.