How can PHP developers effectively upgrade their code to be compatible with newer PHP versions and avoid deprecated features?

To effectively upgrade PHP code to be compatible with newer versions and avoid deprecated features, developers should regularly review the PHP manual for deprecated features and use tools like PHP_CodeSniffer to identify deprecated code. They should replace deprecated functions and features with their modern equivalents and refactor code to adhere to current best practices.

// Before upgrading code
$deprecated_variable = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table");

// After upgrading code
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");
$result = $mysqli->query("SELECT * FROM table");