In what scenarios would it be advisable to use explicit column names instead of "SELECT *" in PHP MySQL queries for better optimization?

Using explicit column names instead of "SELECT *" in PHP MySQL queries is advisable when you only need specific columns from a table. By explicitly specifying the columns you need, you can improve query performance and reduce the amount of data transferred between the database and your PHP script. This can lead to better optimization, especially when dealing with large datasets or complex queries. 

// Explicitly selecting specific columns in a MySQL query
$query = "SELECT column1, column2, column3 FROM table_name WHERE condition = 'value'";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

if(mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0) {
    while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
        // Process the data here
    }
} else {
    echo "No results found.";
}

Keywords

PHP MySQL optimization explicit column names queries

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