What are common pitfalls to avoid when implementing a feature to edit database entries on a website using PHP?

One common pitfall to avoid when implementing a feature to edit database entries on a website using PHP is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to SQL injection attacks. To prevent this, always use prepared statements with parameterized queries to securely interact with the database.

// Connect to the database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "database";

$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

// Prepare a statement and bind parameters
$stmt = $conn->prepare("UPDATE table_name SET column1 = ? WHERE id = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("si", $value1, $id);

// Set parameters and execute
$value1 = "new value";
$id = 1;
$stmt->execute();

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