Than you should aske your hoster to upgrade the sooner than later. Using the Database object has the following advenatges:

1. Encapsulates database connection that makes it more secure. Character escaping is taken care of in the API, so SQL injection attacks is not that threat any longer.
2. You can
   
   try { the connection }
   
   and
   
   catch (the error) { }
   
   and continue.
3. There are drivers for the most important commercial and free database platforms.
4. Seamless integrate database connection(s) and SQL statements into your code.

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