Is using "SELECT *" in PHP queries considered a best practice, or are there better alternatives?

Using "SELECT *" in PHP queries is generally not considered a best practice because it can lead to performance issues and potential security vulnerabilities. It is better to explicitly specify the columns you want to select in your query to improve readability, performance, and security. By specifying the columns, you can also prevent unnecessary data from being fetched from the database.

// Specify the columns you want to select instead of using SELECT *
$query = "SELECT column1, column2, column3 FROM table_name";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

if ($result) {
    // Process the query result
} else {
    // Handle any errors
}