code: public static function encodeSpecialChars($varValue)
  	{
  		if ($varValue === null || $varValue == '')
  		{
  			return $varValue;
  		}
  
  		// Recursively clean arrays
  		if (\is_array($varValue))
  		{
  			foreach ($varValue as $k=>$v)
  			{
  				$varValue[$k] = static::encodeSpecialChars($v);
  			}
  
  			return $varValue;
  		}
  
  		$arrSearch = array('#', '<', '>', '(', ')', '\\', '=');
  		$arrReplace = array('&#35;', '&#60;', '&#62;', '&#40;', '&#41;', '&#92;', '&#61;');
  
  		return str_replace($arrSearch, $arrReplace, $varValue);
  	}
docs: Encode special characters which are potentially dangerous
  
  @param mixed $varValue A string or array
  
  @return mixed The encoded string or array