What are potential pitfalls when using the SELECT * statement in PHP MySQL queries?

Using the SELECT * statement in PHP MySQL queries can lead to inefficient queries, as it retrieves all columns from the table regardless of whether they are needed. This can result in unnecessary data transfer and slower performance. To avoid this, it is recommended to explicitly specify the columns you want to retrieve in the SELECT statement.

// Specify the columns you want to retrieve instead of using SELECT *
$sql = "SELECT column1, column2, column3 FROM table_name WHERE condition = 'value'";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);

// Fetch and process the results as needed
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    // Process the data
}