How can PHP be used to handle error messages when a result is not found in the database?

When a result is not found in the database, PHP can handle this situation by checking the return value of the query and displaying a custom error message to the user. This can be achieved by using conditional statements to check if the query returned any results, and if not, displaying an appropriate message.

// Perform a database query
$result = mysqli_query($connection, "SELECT * FROM table WHERE id = 123");

// Check if any results were found
if(mysqli_num_rows($result) == 0) {
    echo "No results found in the database.";
} else {
    // Process the results
    while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
        // Display or process the data
    }
}

// Free the result set
mysqli_free_result($result);