What potential issues can arise when using special characters like dots in PHP database queries?

Special characters like dots can potentially cause syntax errors in PHP database queries if not properly handled. To avoid this issue, it is recommended to use prepared statements with parameterized queries, which automatically handle special characters and prevent SQL injection attacks.

// Using prepared statements to handle special characters
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM table WHERE column = :value');
$stmt->bindParam(':value', $value);
$stmt->execute();