http://php.net/filter

Config
filter.default=special_chars
API
<?php
$email   
filter_input(INPUT_POST'name'FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);
$age     filter_input(INPUT_POST'age'FILTER_VALIDATE_INT);  
$url     filter_input(INPUT_COOKIE'url'FILTER_VALIDATE_URL);  
$raw_msg filter_input(INPUT_POST'msg'FILTER_UNSAFE_RAW);  
$options filter_input(INPUT_GET'options'FILTER_SANITIZE_SPECIAL_CHARS);

$data filter_var($user_dataFILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
?>
filter_var_array/filter_input_array
<?php
error_reporting
(E_ALL E_STRICT);
$data = array(
   
'product_id'    => 'libgd<script>',
   
'component'    => '10',
   
'versions'      => '2.0.33',
   
'testscalar'    => array('2''23''10''12'),
   
'testarray'    => '2',
);

$args = array(
   
'product_id'  => FILTER_SANITIZE_ENCODED,
   
'component'    => array('filter'    => FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
                           
'flags'    => FILTER_FLAG_ARRAY,
                           
'options'  => array('min_range' => 1'max_range' => 10)
                           ),
   
'versions'    => FILTER_SANITIZE_ENCODED,
   
'doesnotexist' => FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
   
'testscalar'  => array(
                           
'filter' => FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
                           
'flags'  => FILTER_FLAG_SCALAR,
                           ),
   
'testarray'    => array(
                           
'filter' => FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
                           
'flags'  => FILTER_FLAG_ARRAY,
                           )

);

// $myinputs = filter_input_array(INPUT_POST, $args);
$myinputs filter_var_array($data$args);
var_dump($myinputs);
?>
Output
array(6) {
  ["product_id"]=> array(1) {
    [0]=> string(17) "libgd%3Cscript%3E"
  }
  ["component"]=> array(1) {
    [0]=> int(10)
  }
  ["versions"]=> array(1) {
    [0]=> string(6) "2.0.33"
  }
  ["doesnotexist"]=> NULL
  ["testscalar"]=> bool(false)
  ["testarray"]=> array(1) {
    [0]=> int(2)
  }
}