What are the advantages of using *_fetch_assoc() to retrieve data in PHP?

When retrieving data from a MySQL database in PHP, using fetch_assoc() provides an associative array where the column names are used as keys. This makes it easier to access specific columns by name rather than index. It also improves code readability and maintainability. 

// Connect to database
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Query database
$result = $conn->query("SELECT * FROM table");

// Fetch data as associative array
while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    // Access data by column name
    echo $row['column_name'];
}

// Close database connection
$conn->close();

Keywords

fetch_assoc data retrieval PHP database associative array

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