Is using htmlentities for output in PHP necessary to prevent SQL injections?

Using htmlentities in PHP is not directly related to preventing SQL injections. To prevent SQL injections, you should use prepared statements with parameterized queries when interacting with a database. This helps to separate SQL logic from user input, making it much harder for malicious input to interfere with the SQL query execution.

// Example of using prepared statements to prevent SQL injections
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=database', 'username', 'password');

$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username');
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $_POST['username']);
$stmt->execute();

$result = $stmt->fetchAll();
foreach ($result as $row) {
    echo htmlentities($row['username']); // Output the username with htmlentities for security
}