What are the best practices for counting user clicks in PHP to avoid unnecessary database connections?

When counting user clicks in PHP, it's important to avoid unnecessary database connections to improve performance. One way to achieve this is by using session variables to track and store the click count for each user session. By doing so, you can reduce the number of database queries and improve the overall efficiency of your application.

session_start();

if (!isset($_SESSION['click_count'])) {
    $_SESSION['click_count'] = 0;
}

if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') {
    $_SESSION['click_count']++;
    
    // Update the database with the new click count if needed
    // $db->query("UPDATE clicks SET count = {$_SESSION['click_count']} WHERE user_id = {$_SESSION['user_id']}");
}

echo "Total clicks: {$_SESSION['click_count']}";