What are best practices for preventing SQL injection when handling user input in PHP?

SQL injection can be prevented in PHP by using prepared statements with parameterized queries instead of directly inserting user input into SQL queries. This helps to separate the SQL logic from the user input, preventing malicious SQL code from being executed. 

// Establish a database connection
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase', 'username', 'password');

// Prepare a SQL statement with a parameterized query
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username');

// Bind the user input to the parameter
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $_POST['username']);

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

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

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