What are the best practices for avoiding confusion between table names and column names in PHP MySQL queries?

To avoid confusion between table names and column names in PHP MySQL queries, it is best practice to use table aliases in your queries. This helps differentiate between the table names and column names, making the query more readable and less error-prone.

// Example of using table aliases to avoid confusion between table names and column names
$query = "SELECT t.column1, t.column2, t2.column3 FROM table1 t JOIN table2 t2 ON t.id = t2.table1_id";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Loop through the results
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    // Access columns using the table aliases
    echo $row['column1'] . ' ' . $row['column2'] . ' ' . $row['column3'] . '<br>';
}