How can PHP beginners effectively use mysqli and prepared statements for database operations?

To effectively use mysqli and prepared statements for database operations in PHP, beginners should use prepared statements to prevent SQL injection attacks and improve performance. Prepared statements separate SQL logic from data, allowing for safer execution of queries.

// Connect to database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "database";

$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

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

// Prepare and bind statement
$stmt = $conn->prepare("INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2) VALUES (?, ?)");
$stmt->bind_param("ss", $value1, $value2);

// Set parameters and execute
$value1 = "value1";
$value2 = "value2";
$stmt->execute();

// Close statement and connection
$stmt->close();
$conn->close();