What potential pitfalls should be considered when using prepared statements in PHP for database operations?

One potential pitfall when using prepared statements in PHP for database operations is not properly sanitizing input data, which can lead to SQL injection attacks. To mitigate this risk, always use parameterized queries and bind variables to the prepared statement instead of directly inserting user input into the query.

// Example of using prepared statements with parameterized queries in PHP
$pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase", "username", "password");

$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username");
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$username = $_POST['username'];
$stmt->execute();

// Fetch results
while ($row = $stmt->fetch()) {
    // Process results
}