What are the potential pitfalls of not properly checking for duplicate entries in a PHP application?

Not properly checking for duplicate entries in a PHP application can lead to data inconsistencies, errors, and potential security vulnerabilities. To solve this issue, you should implement a check before inserting data into the database to ensure that duplicate entries are not being added.

// Check for duplicate entry before inserting data into the database
$existingEntry = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name = :value");
$existingEntry->bindParam(':value', $value);
$existingEntry->execute();

if($existingEntry->rowCount() == 0) {
    // Insert data into the database
    $insertData = $pdo->prepare("INSERT INTO table_name (column_name) VALUES (:value)");
    $insertData->bindParam(':value', $value);
    $insertData->execute();
} else {
    // Handle duplicate entry error
    echo "Duplicate entry found!";
}