What are the best practices for handling MySQL queries and result sets in PHP to prevent issues like the one described in the thread?

Issue: The issue described in the thread is likely caused by not properly handling errors in MySQL queries and result sets in PHP. To prevent similar issues, it is essential to check for errors after executing queries, handle exceptions, and properly free up resources after querying the database.

// Connect to MySQL database
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");

// Check for connection errors
if ($mysqli->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $mysqli->connect_error);
}

// Execute a query
$result = $mysqli->query("SELECT * FROM table");

// Check for query errors
if (!$result) {
    die("Query failed: " . $mysqli->error);
}

// Fetch and process results
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    // Process each row
}

// Free up resources
$result->free();
$mysqli->close();