What are common challenges faced when trying to display names instead of IDs in PHP database queries?

When trying to display names instead of IDs in PHP database queries, a common challenge is joining tables to retrieve the corresponding names based on the IDs stored in the database. This requires using SQL JOIN queries to connect the tables and retrieve the necessary information. Additionally, proper error handling and data validation are crucial to ensure the query runs smoothly and returns the desired results. 

// Example PHP code snippet to display names instead of IDs in database queries

// Connect to the database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "database_name";

$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

// Query to retrieve names based on IDs
$sql = "SELECT users.name, departments.department_name
        FROM users
        INNER JOIN departments ON users.department_id = departments.id";

$result = $conn->query($sql);

if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
    // Output data of each row
    while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
        echo "User: " . $row["name"]. " - Department: " . $row["department_name"]. "<br>";
    }
} else {
    echo "0 results";
}

$conn->close();

Keywords

SQL queries database normalization JOIN statements foreign keys data retrieval.

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