What are common pitfalls when working on PHP projects?

One common pitfall when working on PHP projects is not properly sanitizing user input, leaving the application vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. To solve this issue, always use prepared statements or parameterized queries when interacting with databases to prevent malicious code execution. 

// Example of using prepared statements to prevent SQL injection
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username');
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->execute();
```

Another common pitfall is not handling errors effectively, leading to potential security vulnerabilities or unexpected behavior. To address this, always enable error reporting and logging in your PHP configuration, and use try-catch blocks to catch and handle exceptions appropriately.

```php
// Example of using try-catch blocks to handle errors
try {
    // Code that may throw an exception
} catch (Exception $e) {
    // Handle the exception, log the error, or display a user-friendly message
}
```

Additionally, not implementing proper input validation can lead to security vulnerabilities and data integrity issues. To mitigate this, always validate and sanitize user input before processing it, using built-in PHP functions like `filter_var()` or regular expressions.

```php
// Example of validating user input using filter_var()
$email = $_POST['email'];
if (filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL)) {
    // Process the email address
} else {
    // Display an error message to the user
}

Keywords

SQL injection XSS vulnerabilities outdated PHP versions unsecured file uploads inefficient database queries

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