What best practices should be followed when interacting with MySQL databases in PHP scripts?

When interacting with MySQL databases in PHP scripts, it is important to follow best practices to ensure security and efficiency. One key practice is to use prepared statements with parameterized queries to prevent SQL injection attacks. Additionally, always sanitize user input to prevent malicious code execution. Finally, remember to close database connections after use to free up resources. 

// Connect to 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);
}

// Prepare and execute a parameterized query
$stmt = $conn->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("s", $username);
$username = "example_user";
$stmt->execute();

// Sanitize user input
$username = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $username);

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

Keywords

MySQL PHP database interaction SQL injection prepared statements

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