What is the significance of properly escaping data before inserting it into a database in PHP?

Improperly escaping data before inserting it into a database in PHP can lead to SQL injection attacks, where malicious code is injected into SQL queries. This can result in unauthorized access to the database, data manipulation, and potential data loss. To prevent this, data should be properly escaped using functions like mysqli_real_escape_string or prepared statements before being inserted into the database. 

// Example of properly escaping data before inserting into a database using mysqli_real_escape_string

// Establish a database connection
$connection = mysqli_connect("localhost", "username", "password", "database");

// Data to be inserted
$name = mysqli_real_escape_string($connection, $_POST['name']);
$email = mysqli_real_escape_string($connection, $_POST['email']);

// Insert data into database
$query = "INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES ('$name', '$email')";
mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Close the database connection
mysqli_close($connection);

Keywords

SQL injection security vulnerability mysqli_real_escape_string prepared statements data sanitization

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