What are some common mistakes to watch out for when writing PHP scripts for database operations?

One common mistake when writing PHP scripts for database operations is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to SQL injection attacks. To prevent this, always use prepared statements with parameterized queries to securely interact with the database. 

// Incorrect way without using prepared statements
$user_input = $_POST['username'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = '$user_input'";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Correct way using prepared statements
$user_input = $_POST['username'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?";
$stmt = $connection->prepare($query);
$stmt->bind_param("s", $user_input);
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt->get_result();

Keywords

SQL injection PDO prepared statements error handling data validation

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