What are the common pitfalls to avoid when working with PHP and MySQL integration in web development projects?

One common pitfall to avoid when working with PHP and MySQL integration is not sanitizing user input before using it in database queries. This can lead to SQL injection attacks, where malicious code is injected into the query, compromising the security of the application. To prevent this, always use prepared statements or parameterized queries to safely handle user input.

// Example of using prepared statements to safely handle user input in a MySQL query
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username");
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->execute();