How can PHP developers prevent data corruption or loss when dealing with special characters in database queries, especially when using WHERE clauses?

Special characters in database queries, especially in WHERE clauses, can lead to data corruption or loss if not handled properly. To prevent this, PHP developers should use prepared statements with parameterized queries to securely pass user input to the database without the risk of SQL injection attacks. 

// Establish a database connection
$pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase", "username", "password");

// Prepare a SQL statement with a parameterized query
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username");

// Bind the parameter value to the query
$username = $_POST['username'];
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);

// Execute the query
$stmt->execute();

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

// Process the results as needed
foreach ($results as $row) {
    echo $row['username'] . "<br>";
}

Keywords

SQL injection htmlentities prepared statements PDO escaping characters

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