What security measures should be taken in PHP code to prevent SQL injection vulnerabilities when interacting with databases?

To prevent SQL injection vulnerabilities in PHP code when interacting with databases, it is crucial to use prepared statements with parameterized queries. This approach ensures that user input is treated as data rather than executable SQL code, thus preventing malicious SQL injection attacks.

// Establish a database connection
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase', 'username', 'password');

// Prepare a SQL statement with a parameterized query
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username");

// Bind the user input to the parameter
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $_POST['username']);

// Execute the prepared statement
$stmt->execute();

// Fetch the results
$results = $stmt->fetchAll();