Which is a better way to connect to a database

First I want to say Thanks for the help.

Here’s the ConnectPDO class:

<?php

namespace website_project\database;

use PDO;

class ConnectPDO {

    private $pdo_options = [
        /* important! use actual prepared statements (default: emulate prepared statements) */
        PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES => false
        /* throw exceptions on errors (default: stay silent) */
        , PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION
        /* fetch associative arrays (default: mixed arrays)    */
        , PDO::ATTR_DEFAULT_FETCH_MODE => PDO::FETCH_ASSOC
    ];
    
    public $connection = \NULL;

    public function __construct() {
        $this->connection = new PDO('mysql:host=' . \DATABASE_HOST . ';dbname=' . \DATABASE_NAME . ';charset=utf8', \DATABASE_USERNAME, \DATABASE_PASSWORD, $this->pdo_options);
    }
    
    public function getDatabase() {
        return $this->connection;
    }

}

would throwing the following into ConnectPDO prevent duplication?

// Empty clone magic method to prevent duplication:
private function __clone() {
    
}