In what ways can beginners effectively practice and apply their PHP and MySQL knowledge, such as through small projects or tutorials?

Beginners can effectively practice and apply their PHP and MySQL knowledge by working on small projects like creating a simple blog or a basic e-commerce website. They can also follow tutorials that cover different aspects of PHP and MySQL, such as connecting to a database, querying data, and displaying it on a webpage.

<?php
// Connect to MySQL database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "myDB";

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

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