What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a persistence layer to encapsulate database access in PHP applications?

Using a persistence layer to encapsulate database access in PHP applications can provide benefits such as improved code organization, easier maintenance, and increased security by preventing SQL injection attacks. However, it can also introduce additional complexity and overhead, potentially slowing down the application.

// Example of implementing a persistence layer in PHP

class Database {
    private $connection;

    public function __construct($host, $username, $password, $database) {
        $this->connection = new mysqli($host, $username, $password, $database);
        if ($this->connection->connect_error) {
            die("Connection failed: " . $this->connection->connect_error);
        }
    }

    public function query($sql) {
        return $this->connection->query($sql);
    }

    public function escapeString($string) {
        return $this->connection->real_escape_string($string);
    }

    public function close() {
        $this->connection->close();
    }
}

// Example of using the persistence layer
$db = new Database('localhost', 'username', 'password', 'database');
$result = $db->query('SELECT * FROM users');
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    echo $row['username'] . '<br>';
}
$db->close();