Question

Is it safe to place my MySQL Database Connection inside a PHP Function so that other PHP functions can use it?

Answer 1

Yes. it is a good idea.

I even place mine in a class.

class database {

     protected $databaseLink;

     function __construct($mysql_db, $mysql_user, $mysql_pass, $mysql_dbName){
            $this->databaseName = $mysql_dbName;
            $this->database = $mysql_db;
            $this->mysql_user = $mysql_user;
            $this->mysql_pass = $mysql_pass;
            $this->openConnection();
      }

      function openConnection(){
            $this->databaseLink = mysql_connect($this->database, $this->mysql_user, $this->mysql_pass);
            mysql_select_db($this->databaseName, $this->databaseLink);
      }

      function get_link(){
            return $this->databaseLink;
      }

}

Then you can just do:

 $db = new database('database', 'username', 'password', 'dbName');

 //to do a query:
 mysql_query("some query", $db->get_link());