What are the dangers of switching from PDO to mysqli for database interactions in PHP?
Switching from PDO to mysqli for database interactions in PHP can introduce potential security vulnerabilities if not done properly. This is because mysqli does not have the same level of support for parameterized queries as PDO, making it easier for SQL injection attacks to occur. To mitigate this risk, make sure to properly sanitize user input and use prepared statements when executing queries with mysqli.
// Example of using mysqli with prepared statements to prevent SQL injection
// Establish connection to database
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");
// Check connection
if ($mysqli->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $mysqli->connect_error);
}
// Prepare a statement with placeholders for user input
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?");
// Bind parameters to the statement
$stmt->bind_param("s", $username);
// Set the username variable
$username = "example_user";
// Execute the statement
$stmt->execute();
// Get the results
$result = $stmt->get_result();
// Fetch data
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
// Process data
}
// Close the statement and connection
$stmt->close();
$mysqli->close();