In PHP MySQL queries, how can the ORDER BY clause be optimized to prioritize results based on proximity to a target value for efficient data retrieval?

When optimizing the ORDER BY clause in MySQL queries to prioritize results based on proximity to a target value, you can use a custom formula in the ORDER BY clause to calculate the distance between the target value and the values in the database. This can help in efficiently retrieving data that is closest to the target value.

// Assuming $targetValue is the value you want to prioritize results based on proximity to
$targetValue = 50;

$query = "SELECT * FROM table_name ORDER BY ABS(column_name - $targetValue)";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Process the results
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    // Process each row
}