What are the advantages of using a database over text files for storing data in PHP applications?

Using a database over text files for storing data in PHP applications offers several advantages, such as better data organization, faster data retrieval, built-in data integrity constraints, and scalability. Databases provide features like indexing, querying, and relationships between data tables, which can significantly improve the efficiency and performance of the application.

// Example PHP code snippet demonstrating the use of a MySQL database to store data

// Connect to the 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);
}

// SQL query to insert data into a table
$sql = "INSERT INTO users (firstname, lastname, email) VALUES ('John', 'Doe', 'john.doe@example.com')";

if ($conn->query($sql) === TRUE) {
    echo "New record created successfully";
} else {
    echo "Error: " . $sql . "<br>" . $conn->error;
}

// Close the database connection
$conn->close();