how to prevent certain characters from being used

[MDanz]

How do i prevent these characters  from being used in the search input text field.

 

;   \   /   <   >   =

 

echo "<input type='text' size='35' name='search' />"; 

 

[xjake88x]

The simplest and easiest way is to strip them out before using the data:

 

$search_text = $_POST['search'];
$disallowed_chars = array(';', '\\', '/', '<', '>', '=');
$search_text = str_replace($disallowed_chars, '', $search_text);

[MDanz]

what about this?

 

 $search = htmlentities($_GET['search']); 

[xjake88x]

The semicolon will still be used because that generates things like < and whatnot.