In the provided PHP code snippets, what improvements can be made to enhance the efficiency and reliability of database operations?
Issue: The provided code snippets are directly executing SQL queries without using prepared statements, making them vulnerable to SQL injection attacks and reducing the efficiency of database operations. To enhance efficiency and reliability, it is recommended to use prepared statements with parameterized queries.
// Original code snippet without prepared statements
$username = $_POST['username'];
$password = $_POST['password'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username='$username' AND password='$password'";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);
// Improved code snippet using prepared statements
$username = $_POST['username'];
$password = $_POST['password'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username=? AND password=?";
$stmt = mysqli_prepare($connection, $query);
mysqli_stmt_bind_param($stmt, "ss", $username, $password);
mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);
$result = mysqli_stmt_get_result($stmt);