Are prepared statements necessary for ensuring security with PDO?

Prepared statements are necessary for ensuring security with PDO because they help prevent SQL injection attacks by separating SQL code from user input. By using placeholders in the SQL query and binding parameters separately, prepared statements ensure that user input is treated as data rather than executable code.

// Example of using prepared statements with PDO to ensure security
$pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase", "username", "password");

$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username AND password = :password");
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->bindParam(':password', $password);
$stmt->execute();

// Fetch results
$results = $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);