How can wildcards be used in PHP links to enhance MySQL query functionality?

Using wildcards in PHP links can enhance MySQL query functionality by allowing for more dynamic and flexible search queries. Wildcards such as '%' can be used to represent any sequence of characters, making it easier to search for partial matches in a database. This can be particularly useful when building search functionality on a website, as it allows users to input partial search terms and still retrieve relevant results.

$searchTerm = $_GET['search']; // assuming the search term is passed in the URL query parameter
$searchQuery = "SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name LIKE '%$searchTerm%'";
// Execute the query and fetch results