Is it better to use a while loop or a where clause when querying a MySQL database in PHP?

When querying a MySQL database in PHP, it is generally better to use a WHERE clause in the SQL query rather than fetching all the data and filtering it using a while loop in PHP. This is because using a WHERE clause in the SQL query allows the database server to efficiently retrieve only the necessary data, reducing the amount of data that needs to be transferred over the network and processed in PHP. This can lead to better performance and scalability of your application. 

// Using a WHERE clause in the SQL query
$sql = "SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name = :value";
$stmt = $pdo->prepare($sql);
$stmt->bindParam(':value', $value);
$stmt->execute();
$results = $stmt->fetchAll();
foreach ($results as $row) {
    // Process each row
}

Keywords

PHP MySQL while loop where clause querying

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