What are the best practices for handling table prefixes in complex SELECT queries in PHP?

When dealing with complex SELECT queries in PHP that involve multiple tables with prefixes, it's important to properly handle these prefixes to avoid conflicts and ensure the query runs smoothly. One common approach is to define the table prefixes as variables and use them throughout the query to reference the correct tables.

// Define table prefixes
$table1_prefix = 'prefix1_';
$table2_prefix = 'prefix2_';

// Construct the SELECT query with table prefixes
$query = "SELECT {$table1_prefix}column1, {$table2_prefix}column2 
          FROM {$table1_prefix}table1 
          JOIN {$table2_prefix}table2 ON {$table1_prefix}table1.id = {$table2_prefix}table2.id";

// Execute the query
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Loop through the results
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    // Process the data
}