What potential pitfalls should be considered when using PHP to interact with databases for select dropdown menus?

When using PHP to interact with databases for select dropdown menus, a potential pitfall to consider is SQL injection attacks. To prevent this, use prepared statements with parameterized queries to sanitize user input and avoid executing malicious SQL code. 

// Connect to the database
$pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase", "username", "password");

// Prepare a statement with a parameterized query
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT id, name FROM options WHERE category = :category");

// Bind the parameter
$stmt->bindParam(':category', $_GET['category']);

// Execute the query
$stmt->execute();

// Fetch the results and populate the select dropdown menu
echo "<select name='options'>";
while ($row = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
    echo "<option value='" . $row['id'] . "'>" . $row['name'] . "</option>";
}
echo "</select>";

Keywords

SQL injection PDO prepared statements data validation XSS protection

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