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<?php

class Database {
    private static $_db = null;

    public static function connect($host, $dbname, $user, $password) {
        if (self::$_db === null) {
            $dsn = 'mysql:host=' . $host . ';dbname=' . $dbname . ';charset=utf8';
            self::$_db = new PDO($dsn, $user, $password);
            self::$_db->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
        }

        return self::$_db;
    }
}

$db = Database::connect('localhost', 'dbname', 'user', 'password');

$stmt = $db->query('SELECT fname FROM tbl_students');
var_dump($stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC));