What potential pitfalls should beginners be aware of when using PHP to interact with a MySQL database and handling navigation within a webpage?

Beginners should be aware of SQL injection attacks when interacting with a MySQL database in PHP. To prevent this, always use prepared statements or parameterized queries to sanitize user input. Additionally, when handling navigation within a webpage, be cautious of using user input directly in URLs to prevent potential security vulnerabilities. 

// Example of using prepared statements to interact with a MySQL database
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username");
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->execute();
```

```php
// Example of sanitizing user input for navigation within a webpage
$page = isset($_GET['page']) ? $_GET['page'] : 'home';
$allowed_pages = ['home', 'about', 'contact'];
if (!in_array($page, $allowed_pages)) {
    $page = 'home';
}

Keywords

MySQL PHP database interaction navigation webpage handling

Related Questions