What are some common mistakes to avoid when using PHP to interact with a database for dynamic content generation?

One common mistake to avoid when using PHP to interact with a database for dynamic content generation is not properly sanitizing user input, which can leave your application vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. To prevent this, always use prepared statements or parameterized queries to securely interact with the database. 

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

// Correct way with prepared statement
$user_input = $_POST['user_input'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?";
$stmt = mysqli_prepare($connection, $query);
mysqli_stmt_bind_param($stmt, "s", $user_input);
mysqli_stmt_execute($stmt);
$result = mysqli_stmt_get_result($stmt);

Keywords

SQL injection PDO prepared statements error handling data validation

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