What best practice should be followed when using the UPDATE statement in PHP to avoid unintended consequences?

When using the UPDATE statement in PHP, it is important to always use prepared statements to avoid SQL injection attacks and unintended consequences. Prepared statements separate SQL logic from user input, preventing malicious input from altering the intended behavior of the query.

// Establish a database connection
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase', 'username', 'password');

// Prepare the UPDATE statement with placeholders
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("UPDATE mytable SET column1 = :value1 WHERE id = :id");

// Bind the values to the placeholders
$stmt->bindParam(':value1', $value1);
$stmt->bindParam(':id', $id);

// Set the values to be updated
$value1 = 'new_value';
$id = 1;

// Execute the statement
$stmt->execute();