In PHP, what are the common pitfalls to avoid when working with large datasets and sessions for data transfer between pages?

When working with large datasets and sessions for data transfer between pages in PHP, common pitfalls to avoid include storing excessive amounts of data in session variables, which can lead to performance issues and high memory usage. To mitigate this, it's recommended to only store essential data in sessions and consider alternative methods like passing data through URLs or using database storage for large datasets.

// Example of storing only essential data in session
$_SESSION['user_id'] = 123;
$_SESSION['username'] = 'john_doe';

// Example of passing data through URL
<a href="page2.php?user_id=123&username=john_doe">Go to Page 2</a>

// Example of using database storage for large datasets
// Retrieve data from database
$userData = $pdo->query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_id = 123")->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);