What are the potential pitfalls of directly inserting data into a database without proper validation or sanitization in PHP?
Directly inserting data into a database without proper validation or sanitization in PHP can lead to SQL injection attacks where malicious code is injected into the database. To prevent this, it is crucial to use prepared statements or parameterized queries to sanitize user input before inserting it into the database.
// Using prepared statements to prevent SQL injection
// Assuming $conn is the database connection object
$stmt = $conn->prepare("INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2) VALUES (?, ?)");
$stmt->bind_param("ss", $value1, $value2);
// Set the values of $value1 and $value2 based on user input
$stmt->execute();
$stmt->close();