What are common pitfalls when querying MySQL databases in PHP?
One common pitfall when querying MySQL databases in 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 safely pass user input to the database.
// Connect to MySQL database
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");
// Prepare a SQL statement with a parameterized query
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("s", $username);
// Set the parameter value and execute the query
$username = $_POST['username'];
$stmt->execute();
// Fetch results
$result = $stmt->get_result();
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
// Do something with the data
}
// Close statement and connection
$stmt->close();
$mysqli->close();