What is the potential impact on server performance when updating database records on every page load in PHP?

Updating database records on every page load in PHP can significantly impact server performance by increasing the workload on the database server and potentially causing slower page load times. To mitigate this issue, it is recommended to only update database records when necessary, such as in response to user actions or specific events.

// Check if the database update is necessary before executing it
if ($update_needed) {
    // Perform the database update
    // This could be an INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE query, etc.
    $sql = "UPDATE table SET column = value WHERE condition";
    $result = mysqli_query($connection, $sql);
}