What are the common pitfalls developers may encounter when updating database records through web forms in PHP?

One common pitfall developers may encounter when updating database records through web forms in PHP is not properly sanitizing user input, leaving the application vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. To prevent this, developers should always use prepared statements with parameterized queries to securely interact with the database.

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

// Prepare the SQL statement with placeholders
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("UPDATE table_name SET column_name = :value WHERE id = :id");

// Bind the parameters
$stmt->bindParam(':value', $_POST['value']);
$stmt->bindParam(':id', $_POST['id']);

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