What are the common mistakes made when trying to output data from a database using PHP scripts?

One common mistake when outputting data from a database using PHP scripts is not properly escaping the data before echoing it to the page. This can lead to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attacks. To solve this issue, always use prepared statements with parameterized queries to securely retrieve and display data from the database.

// Connect to database
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase', 'username', 'password');

// Prepare and execute a query using a prepared statement
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE id = :id");
$stmt->bindParam(':id', $id);
$stmt->execute();

// Fetch and display the data
while ($row = $stmt->fetch()) {
    echo htmlspecialchars($row['column_name']);
}