What are the drawbacks of using SELECT * in SQL queries when working with PHP and MySQL?

Using SELECT * in SQL queries can be inefficient because it retrieves all columns from a table, even if not all columns are needed. This can lead to unnecessary data transfer between the database and PHP, resulting in slower query performance and increased memory usage. It is best practice to explicitly specify the columns you need in your SELECT statement to improve query efficiency. 

// Explicitly specify columns in your SELECT statement
$sql = "SELECT column1, column2, column3 FROM table_name WHERE condition = value";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);

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

Keywords

SELECT * SQL queries PHP MySQL drawbacks

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