Databases
Beginner
What is Prepared Statement?
A pre-compiled SQL template that uses parameters instead of literal values, preventing SQL injection and improving performance.
Prepared statements separate SQL logic from data: PREPARE stmt AS SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = $1; EXECUTE stmt(42). The database parses and plans the query once, then reuses it with different parameters.
Benefits include SQL injection prevention (parameters are never interpreted as SQL), improved performance (parse once, execute many), and cleaner code. Every modern database driver supports prepared statements — they should be the default for all queries.