How can the use of PDO or MySQLi improve the database interaction in PHP, especially in the context of the given code?

Using PDO or MySQLi can improve database interaction in PHP by providing a more secure and efficient way to connect to and query the database. These extensions offer prepared statements which help prevent SQL injection attacks and make it easier to work with different database systems. By switching to PDO or MySQLi, the code becomes more maintainable and portable across different database platforms.

// Using PDO to connect to a MySQL database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "database";

try {
    $conn = new PDO("mysql:host=$servername;dbname=$dbname", $username, $password);
    $conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
    echo "Connected successfully";
} catch(PDOException $e) {
    echo "Connection failed: " . $e->getMessage();
}