How effective are prepared statements with MySQLi in preventing SQL injection attacks in PHP applications?

Prepared statements with MySQLi are highly effective in preventing SQL injection attacks in PHP applications. By using placeholders for user input and binding parameters to those placeholders, the database engine can distinguish between SQL code and data, effectively neutralizing any malicious input. 

// Establish a connection to the database
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");

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

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

// Set the parameter values
$username = $_POST['username'];

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

// Fetch the results
$result = $stmt->get_result();

// Process the results
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    // Do something with the data
}

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

Keywords

prepared statements MySQLi SQL injection attacks PHP applications security

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