What are some potential pitfalls to be aware of when using SQL queries in PHP to populate tables?

One potential pitfall when using SQL queries in PHP to populate tables is SQL injection attacks, where malicious SQL code is inserted into input fields to manipulate the database. To prevent this, it's important to use prepared statements with parameterized queries to sanitize user input. 

// Example of using prepared statements to prevent SQL injection

// Assuming $conn is the database connection object

// Prepare the SQL statement
$stmt = $conn->prepare("INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2) VALUES (?, ?)");

// Bind parameters
$stmt->bind_param("ss", $value1, $value2);

// Set parameters and execute
$value1 = "input_value1";
$value2 = "input_value2";
$stmt->execute();

Keywords

SQL injection PDO prepared statements data validation error handling

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