Are there alternative methods to prevent duplicate data from being displayed in PHP applications without using "DISTINCT"?

When retrieving data from a database in PHP applications, one common issue is the display of duplicate data. One way to prevent this is by using the SQL keyword "DISTINCT" in the query to filter out duplicate rows. However, if you want to explore alternative methods to prevent duplicate data from being displayed without using "DISTINCT," you can utilize PHP arrays to store unique values and then display them.

// Assume $result contains the data retrieved from the database

$uniqueValues = array();

foreach ($result as $row) {
    $value = $row['column_name']; // Change 'column_name' to the actual column name
    if (!in_array($value, $uniqueValues)) {
        $uniqueValues[] = $value;
        // Display the unique value
        echo $value . "<br>";
    }
}