What are some common pitfalls to be aware of when writing PHP scripts that interact with databases and form submissions?

One common pitfall is not properly sanitizing user input before using it in database queries, which can lead to SQL injection attacks. To prevent this, always use prepared statements or parameterized queries when interacting with databases. Additionally, validate and sanitize user input from forms to prevent cross-site scripting attacks. 

// Example of using prepared statements to interact with a database
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username");
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->execute();
$results = $stmt->fetchAll();
```

```php
// Example of validating and sanitizing user input from a form
$username = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'username', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'email', FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL);

Keywords

SQL injection data validation prepared statements XSS attacks error handling

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