What are the differences between using '=' and '!=' operators in PHP MySQL queries for filtering data?

When writing MySQL queries in PHP, the '=' operator is used to filter data based on an exact match, while the '!=' operator is used to filter data based on a non-matching value. This means that using '=' will return rows where the column value is equal to the specified value, while using '!=' will return rows where the column value is not equal to the specified value.

// Using '=' operator to filter data based on an exact match
$query = "SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name = 'value'";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Using '!=' operator to filter data based on a non-matching value
$query = "SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name != 'value'";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);