How can the use of sprintf in PHP improve the security and efficiency of SQL queries?

Using sprintf in PHP can improve the security and efficiency of SQL queries by properly escaping and formatting input data, preventing SQL injection attacks. By using placeholders in the SQL query string and passing variables separately, sprintf ensures that the input data is correctly sanitized and formatted before being executed, reducing the risk of malicious code injection.

// Example of using sprintf to improve security and efficiency of SQL queries
$name = "John";
$age = 30;

// Using sprintf to construct the SQL query with placeholders
$sql = sprintf("SELECT * FROM users WHERE name='%s' AND age=%d", mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $name), $age);

// Executing the SQL query
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);

// Processing the query result
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    // Do something with the data
}