What are the potential risks of using the outdated MySQL API in PHP and what are the recommended alternatives?

Using the outdated MySQL API in PHP can pose security risks and compatibility issues with newer versions of MySQL. It is recommended to switch to either MySQLi or PDO extensions, which offer improved security features and support for prepared statements.

// Using MySQLi extension as an alternative to the outdated MySQL API
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");

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

// Perform queries using prepared statements
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("s", $username);
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt->get_result();

while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    // Process results
}

$stmt->close();
$mysqli->close();