What are some alternative methods or functions in PHP that can be used to handle database queries more efficiently and securely compared to the methods shown in the forum thread?

The issue with the methods shown in the forum thread is that they are vulnerable to SQL injection attacks and do not utilize prepared statements for secure database querying. To handle database queries more efficiently and securely, it is recommended to use PDO (PHP Data Objects) or MySQLi extensions in PHP. These extensions support prepared statements, which help prevent SQL injection attacks and provide a more secure way to interact with the database. 

// Using PDO for secure and efficient database querying
try {
    $pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase', 'username', 'password');
    $pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);

    $stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username");
    $stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
    $stmt->execute();

    $result = $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
    // Process the query result
} catch(PDOException $e) {
    echo "Error: " . $e->getMessage();
}

Keywords

SQL injection prepared statements PDO mysqli data sanitization

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