What are the potential pitfalls of using the mysql_query function in PHP when handling database queries?

One potential pitfall of using the mysql_query function in PHP is that it is deprecated and not recommended for use due to security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attacks. To mitigate this issue, it is recommended to use prepared statements with parameterized queries using PDO or MySQLi extensions in PHP. 

// Using PDO with prepared statements to handle database queries securely
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=database', 'username', 'password');
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM table WHERE column = :value");
$stmt->bindParam(':value', $value);
$stmt->execute();
$results = $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);

Keywords

mysql_query SQL injection deprecated security vulnerability data loss

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