In PHP, what are the best practices for handling database connections and queries to avoid errors like the ones mentioned in the forum thread?

The best practices for handling database connections in PHP include using prepared statements to prevent SQL injection attacks, properly escaping user input, and closing database connections after use to avoid resource leaks. To avoid errors like the ones mentioned in the forum thread, it is important to sanitize user input and validate data before executing queries.

// Establish a database connection
$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);
}

// Sanitize user input
$user_input = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $_POST['user_input']);

// Prepare a SQL statement
$stmt = $conn->prepare("SELECT * FROM table WHERE column = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("s", $user_input);

// Execute the query
$stmt->execute();

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