What best practices should be followed when handling MySQL connections in PHP to prevent access denial issues?

To prevent access denial issues when handling MySQL connections in PHP, it is best practice to properly close the connection after use to release resources and prevent connection limit issues. Additionally, using connection pooling and limiting the number of simultaneous connections can help prevent denial of service attacks.

// Establish a MySQL connection
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "database";

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

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

// Perform database operations

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