What are common pitfalls when using PHP to create scripts for adding, updating, and deleting categories in a database?

One common pitfall when working with PHP scripts for adding, updating, and deleting categories in a database 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 interact with the database. 

// Example of using prepared statements to add a category to the database

// Assuming $categoryName is the user input for the category name
$categoryName = $_POST['category_name'];

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

// Prepare a SQL statement with a placeholder for the category name
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO categories (name) VALUES (:categoryName)");

// Bind the category name parameter to the placeholder
$stmt->bindParam(':categoryName', $categoryName);

// Execute the statement to add the category to the database
$stmt->execute();

Keywords

SQL injection data validation prepared statements error handling database transactions

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