How can special characters in city names affect the use of SQL queries in PHP?

Special characters in city names can affect SQL queries in PHP if they are not properly handled. To avoid issues, it is recommended to use prepared statements with parameterized queries to securely insert data into the database. This helps prevent SQL injection attacks and ensures that special characters in city names do not interfere with the query execution.

// Example code snippet using prepared statements to handle special characters in city names
$city = $_POST['city'];

// Create a prepared statement
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM cities WHERE city_name = :city");

// Bind parameters
$stmt->bindParam(':city', $city);

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

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