Are there any common pitfalls to avoid when optimizing a database in PHP?

One common pitfall to avoid when optimizing a database in PHP is not utilizing prepared statements when executing SQL queries. Prepared statements help prevent SQL injection attacks and can improve performance by reusing query execution plans. To avoid this pitfall, always use prepared statements when interacting with a database in PHP.

// Using prepared statements to optimize database queries
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = :id");
$stmt->bindParam(':id', $id, PDO::PARAM_INT);
$stmt->execute();
$results = $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);