What are the common pitfalls to avoid when writing PHP code to handle form submissions and database interactions?

One common pitfall to avoid when handling form submissions and database interactions in PHP is failing to sanitize user input, which can lead to SQL injection attacks. To prevent this, always use prepared statements with parameterized queries to safely interact with the database.

// Example of using prepared statements to handle form submissions and database interactions safely

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

// Prepare a statement to insert data into a table
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO users (username, email) VALUES (:username, :email)");

// Bind parameters and execute the statement
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $_POST['username']);
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $_POST['email']);
$stmt->execute();