What potential pitfalls should be considered when working with PHP variables and database interactions?

One potential pitfall when working with PHP variables and database interactions is SQL injection attacks. To prevent this, always use prepared statements with parameterized queries to sanitize user input and avoid directly concatenating user input into SQL queries. 

// Using prepared statements to prevent SQL injection
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username");
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->execute();

Keywords

SQL injection data validation prepared statements PDO escaping data

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