What are the potential pitfalls of using the DELETE command in PHP to remove data from a database?

When using the DELETE command in PHP to remove data from a database, the potential pitfalls include accidentally deleting all records in a table if the WHERE clause is not specified correctly, leaving the database in an inconsistent state. To avoid this issue, always double-check the WHERE clause to ensure that only the intended records are deleted. 

// Example of using DELETE command with a WHERE clause to remove specific data from a database
$pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase", "username", "password");

$id = 123; // ID of the record to be deleted

$stmt = $pdo->prepare("DELETE FROM mytable WHERE id = :id");
$stmt->bindParam(':id', $id, PDO::PARAM_INT);
$stmt->execute();

Keywords

SQL injection data loss foreign key constraints transaction management error handling

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