What are some best practices for constructing a PHP SELECT query to search for specific word fragments in a database?

When constructing a PHP SELECT query to search for specific word fragments in a database, it is best to use the LIKE operator along with wildcards (%) to match the desired word fragments. This allows for more flexible and dynamic searches within the database. Additionally, it is important to properly sanitize user input to prevent SQL injection attacks.

// Assuming $searchTerm contains the word fragment to search for
$searchTerm = 'example';

// Sanitize the search term to prevent SQL injection
$searchTerm = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn, $searchTerm);

// Construct the SQL query using the LIKE operator and wildcards
$sql = "SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name LIKE '%$searchTerm%'";

// Execute the query and fetch results
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);

// Loop through the results and do something with them
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {
    // Do something with the fetched data
}