What are common pitfalls to watch out for when writing PHP scripts?

One common pitfall when writing PHP scripts is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting attacks. To prevent this, always use functions like `mysqli_real_escape_string()` or prepared statements when interacting with databases. 

// Example of using mysqli_real_escape_string to sanitize user input before using it in a SQL query
$user_input = $_POST['user_input'];
$clean_input = mysqli_real_escape_string($connection, $user_input);

$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = '$clean_input'";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

Keywords

syntax errors security vulnerabilities memory leaks SQL injection infinite loops

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