What are some common pitfalls or challenges that beginners may face when learning PHP and MySQL?

One common challenge for beginners learning PHP and MySQL is properly connecting to the database. This often involves setting up the correct database credentials and establishing a connection using PHP's mysqli or PDO extension. It's important to ensure that the connection is successful before attempting any database queries.

// Database credentials
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "";
$database = "mydatabase";

// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $database);

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