Are there any specific PHP libraries or functions that should be used instead of the ones causing the error in the code snippet?

The issue in the code snippet is that the `mysql_query` function is deprecated and should be replaced with `mysqli_query` or PDO for improved security and functionality. To solve this issue, you should use `mysqli_query` instead of `mysql_query` to execute SQL queries in PHP.

// Connect to the database
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");

// Check connection
if ($mysqli->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $mysqli->connect_error);
}

// Execute SQL query using mysqli_query
$result = $mysqli->query("SELECT * FROM table_name");

// Fetch data from the result
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    // Process the data
}

// Close the connection
$mysqli->close();