What are the potential pitfalls or challenges when using external classes like PEAR for database operations in PHP?

One potential pitfall when using external classes like PEAR for database operations in PHP is the lack of control and customization compared to writing your own database queries. To address this, it's important to thoroughly understand the functionality and limitations of the external class being used.

// Example of using PEAR DB for database operations
require_once 'DB.php';

$options = array(
    'host' => 'localhost',
    'username' => 'username',
    'password' => 'password',
    'database' => 'database_name'
);

$db = DB::connect($options);

if (PEAR::isError($db)) {
    die($db->getMessage());
}

// Perform database operations using $db object