The use of Prepared Statements has become a best practice when persisting data for an application. A prepared statement is an efficient and secure way to query databases using SQL. Different programming languages may implement prepared statements differently. This post is specific to Java.
Why Are Prepared Statements More Efficient?
Unlike Java’s Statement object, a PreparedStatement object is given a SQL statement during creation. The performance advantage is due to the fact that the SQL statement is usually sent immediately to the DBMS to be compiled. Therefore, when the prepared statement is executed, it utilizes a SQL statement that has been precompiled. This creates a performance advantage over the Statement object when a single statement may be run multiple times.
Why Are Prepared Statements More Secure?
More importantly, prepared statements can protect an application against an SQL injection attack. SQL injection attacks occur when an attacker attempts to pass values into an application that the database interprets as additional SQL commands instead of as a simple parameter. Attackers use this method to attempt to gain access or manipulate data that would otherwise be restricted to them.
Prepared statements prevent SQL injection attacks because regardless of what an attacker types into a field, the program will always interpret it as a single parameter and will never process the input as a command.