What are some potential pitfalls to be aware of when using PHP to query a database for ranking data?

One potential pitfall when using PHP to query a database for ranking data is the risk of SQL injection attacks if user input is not properly sanitized. To prevent this, always use prepared statements with parameterized queries to securely pass user input to the database. 

// Example of using prepared statements to query ranking data securely

// Assuming $db is your database connection

// Prepare a SQL statement with a placeholder for user input
$stmt = $db->prepare("SELECT * FROM rankings WHERE category = ?");
$category = $_GET['category']; // Assuming this is user input

// Bind the user input to the prepared statement
$stmt->bind_param("s", $category);

// Execute the statement
$stmt->execute();

// Fetch the results
$result = $stmt->get_result();

// Loop through the results
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    // Process each row as needed
}

// Close the statement and database connection
$stmt->close();
$db->close();

Keywords

SQL injection data validation prepared statements error handling performance optimization

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