What best practices should be followed when integrating PHP scripts with MySQL databases?
When integrating PHP scripts with MySQL databases, it is important to follow best practices to ensure security, efficiency, and maintainability. This includes using parameterized queries to prevent SQL injection attacks, sanitizing user input, validating data before inserting or updating in the database, and closing database connections after use to free up resources.
// Establish a connection to the MySQL database
$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);
}
// Use parameterized queries to prevent SQL injection
$stmt = $conn->prepare("INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2) VALUES (?, ?)");
$stmt->bind_param("ss", $value1, $value2);
$value1 = "example1";
$value2 = "example2";
$stmt->execute();
// Close the database connection
$stmt->close();
$conn->close();