What is the question mark's significance in MySQL at "WHERE column = ?"?

Question

I am dissecting some code and came across this,

$sql = 'SELECT page.*, author.name AS author, updator.name AS updator '      . 'FROM '.TABLE_PREFIX.'page AS page '      . 'LEFT JOIN '.TABLE_PREFIX.'user AS author ON author.id = page.created_by_id '      . 'LEFT JOIN '.TABLE_PREFIX.'user AS updator ON updator.id = page.updated_by_id '      . 'WHERE slug = ? AND parent_id = ? AND (status_id='.Page::STATUS_REVIEWED.' OR status_id='.Page::STATUS_PUBLISHED.' OR status_id='.Page::STATUS_HIDDEN.')'; 

I am wondering what the "?" does in the WHERE statement. Is it some sort of parameter holder?

Answer 1

Prepared statments use the '?' in MySQL to allow for binding params to the statement. Highly regarded as more secure against SQL injections if used properly. This also allows for quicker SQL queries as the request only has to be compiled once and can be reused.