What are common issues beginners face when trying to retrieve data from a database in PHP?

One common issue beginners face when trying to retrieve data from a database in PHP is not establishing a proper database connection. This can be solved by using the PDO (PHP Data Objects) or MySQLi extension to connect to the database before querying for data. 

// Establishing a database connection using PDO
$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);
} catch(PDOException $e) {
    echo "Connection failed: " . $e->getMessage();
}

Keywords

MySQL database connection SQL injection PDO error handling

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