What are common pitfalls when retrieving data from a database in PHP?

One common pitfall when retrieving data from a database in PHP is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to SQL injection attacks. To avoid this, always use prepared statements with parameterized queries to securely retrieve data from the database.

// Connect to the database
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase', 'username', 'password');

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

// Bind the parameter and execute the query
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->execute();

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