How can the use of prepared statements in MySQLi or PDO_MySQL improve the security and efficiency of database queries in PHP?

Using prepared statements in MySQLi or PDO_MySQL can improve the security of database queries in PHP by preventing SQL injection attacks. Prepared statements separate the SQL query from the user input, allowing the database to distinguish between code and data. This also improves the efficiency of queries by reducing the overhead of repeatedly parsing and compiling SQL statements. 

// Using prepared statements in MySQLi
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");

// Prepare a SQL statement
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?");

// Bind parameters
$stmt->bind_param("s", $username);

// Set parameters and execute
$username = "example_user";
$stmt->execute();

// Get results
$result = $stmt->get_result();
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    // Process results
}

// Close statement and connection
$stmt->close();
$mysqli->close();

Keywords

Prepared statements MySQLi PDO_MySQL security efficiency

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