How can PHP beginners improve their understanding of handling database queries and data manipulation effectively?

PHP beginners can improve their understanding of handling database queries and data manipulation effectively by practicing writing SQL queries, learning about PHP's PDO (PHP Data Objects) extension for interacting with databases, and utilizing prepared statements to prevent SQL injection attacks. They can also benefit from studying PHP frameworks like Laravel or Symfony that provide built-in database query builders and ORM (Object-Relational Mapping) tools. 

// Example PHP code snippet using PDO to connect to a MySQL database and fetch data

try {
    $pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=my_database', 'username', 'password');
    $pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);

    $stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = :id');
    $stmt->bindParam(':id', $userId, PDO::PARAM_INT);
    $stmt->execute();

    $user = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);

    // Do something with the fetched user data
} catch (PDOException $e) {
    echo 'Error: ' . $e->getMessage();
}

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