What are the common mistakes made when implementing friend list functionality using PHP?

One common mistake when implementing friend list functionality using PHP is not properly sanitizing user input, which can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attacks. To solve this, always use prepared statements or parameterized queries when interacting with the database to prevent these types of attacks.

// Example of using prepared statements to sanitize user input when adding a friend to the friend list

// Assuming $db is the database connection

// Sanitize user input
$userId = $_POST['user_id'];
$friendId = $_POST['friend_id'];

// Prepare the SQL statement
$stmt = $db->prepare("INSERT INTO friend_list (user_id, friend_id) VALUES (?, ?)");
$stmt->bind_param("ii", $userId, $friendId);

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

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