What best practices should be followed when using prepared statements with bind values in PHP PDO?

When using prepared statements with bind values in PHP PDO, it is important to properly sanitize and validate user input to prevent SQL injection attacks. Additionally, it is recommended to use named placeholders instead of question marks for better readability and maintainability of the code. Finally, always remember to close the prepared statement after executing it to free up resources.

// Example of using prepared statements with bind values in PHP PDO

// Assuming $pdo is a PDO object connected to the database

// Sanitize and validate user input
$userInput = filter_var($_POST['user_input'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

// Prepare the SQL statement with named placeholders
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username");

// Bind the sanitized user input to the named placeholder
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $userInput);

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

// Fetch the results
$results = $stmt->fetchAll();

// Close the prepared statement
$stmt->closeCursor();