What potential issues could arise when using PHP functions to interact with a MySQL database?

One potential issue that could arise when using PHP functions to interact with a MySQL database is SQL injection attacks. To prevent this, you should always use prepared statements with parameterized queries to securely pass user input to the database.

// Establish a database connection
$connection = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if ($connection->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $connection->connect_error);
}

// Prepare a SQL statement with a parameterized query
$stmt = $connection->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("s", $username);

// Set the parameter values and execute the statement
$username = "example_user";
$stmt->execute();

// Process the results
$result = $stmt->get_result();
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    // Do something with the data
}

// Close the statement and connection
$stmt->close();
$connection->close();