How can you check if the connection to a MySQL database was successful in PHP?

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To check if the connection to a MySQL database was successful in PHP, you can utilize the mysqli extension, which provides an object-oriented interface for interacting with MySQL databases. The process involves establishing a connection, checking for errors, and verifying the connection status.

Firstly, you need to establish a connection to the MySQL database using the mysqli_connect() function. This function takes the hostname, username, password, and database name as parameters. Here's an example:

php
$host = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "password";
$database = "my_database";

$conn = mysqli_connect($host, $username, $password, $database);

After establishing the connection, you can check for any connection errors using the mysqli_connect_error() function. This function returns a string describing the error, if any. If no error occurred, it will return an empty string. You can use this information to handle any potential errors gracefully. Here's an example:

php
if (mysqli_connect_error()) {
    die("Connection failed: " . mysqli_connect_error());
}

If the connection is successful and no errors are encountered, you can check the connection status using the mysqli_ping() function. This function sends a ping to the server and returns true if the connection is still active, or false if it has been closed. Here's an example:

php
if (mysqli_ping($conn)) {
    echo "Connection to MySQL database is active.";
} else {
    echo "Connection to MySQL database is closed.";
}

Additionally, you can use the mysqli_error() function to retrieve any specific error messages related to the most recent database operation. This can be useful for debugging purposes. Here's an example:

php
if (!mysqli_ping($conn)) {
    die("Connection error: " . mysqli_error($conn));
}

To check if the connection to a MySQL database was successful in PHP, you need to establish a connection using mysqli_connect(), check for connection errors using mysqli_connect_error(), verify the connection status using mysqli_ping(), and retrieve specific error messages using mysqli_error() if necessary.

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