Is it recommended to use persistent database connections in PHP applications?

Using persistent database connections in PHP applications can improve performance by reducing the overhead of establishing a new connection for each request. However, it is important to carefully manage these connections to prevent issues like running out of available connections or stale connections causing errors. It is recommended to use connection pooling and connection timeouts to ensure that connections are properly managed.

// Example of using a persistent database connection with connection pooling and timeouts
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "myDB";

// Create connection
$conn = mysqli_connect($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if (!$conn) {
    die("Connection failed: " . mysqli_connect_error());
}

// Set connection timeout
mysqli_options($conn, MYSQLI_OPT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT, 5);

// Use connection for database operations

// Close connection
mysqli_close($conn);