What are the best practices for implementing escape_string or Prepared Statements in PHP to prevent injection vulnerabilities?

To prevent SQL injection vulnerabilities in PHP, it is recommended to use Prepared Statements instead of escaping strings. Prepared Statements separate SQL code from user input, making it impossible for an attacker to inject malicious SQL code. This is a more secure method compared to escaping strings, which can still leave room for vulnerabilities.

// Using Prepared Statements to prevent SQL injection
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username AND password = :password");
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->bindParam(':password', $password);
$stmt->execute();