What are the best practices for debugging PHP scripts that involve database queries, such as using var_dump() and other debugging techniques?

When debugging PHP scripts that involve database queries, it is essential to use var_dump() to output the query results and variables to identify any errors or unexpected data. Additionally, enabling error reporting and using try-catch blocks can help catch and handle any exceptions that may occur during database operations. 

// Enable error reporting
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', 1);

// Sample database connection and query
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "database";

$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

$sql = "SELECT * FROM table";
$result = $conn->query($sql);

// Check for errors in query execution
if (!$result) {
    echo "Error: " . $conn->error;
}

// Output query results using var_dump()
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    var_dump($row);
}

$conn->close();

Keywords

var_dump debugging techniques database queries PHP scripts best practices

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