What are the drawbacks of using SELECT * in PHP when querying a database?

Using SELECT * in PHP when querying a database can lead to performance issues and inefficiencies because it retrieves all columns from the table, even if you only need a few. This can result in unnecessary data transfer between the database and your PHP script, consuming more memory and potentially slowing down your application. To solve this issue, specify the specific columns you need in the SELECT statement instead of using SELECT *.

// Specify the specific columns you need in the SELECT statement
$sql = "SELECT column1, column2, column3 FROM your_table WHERE condition = 'value'";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);

// Fetch and process the results as needed
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    // Process the data
}