What are the potential pitfalls of not understanding the basics of MySQL when working with PHP?

Not understanding the basics of MySQL when working with PHP can lead to inefficient queries, security vulnerabilities, and difficulty troubleshooting errors. To avoid these pitfalls, it is important to have a solid understanding of SQL syntax, database normalization, and best practices for interacting with a database in PHP.

// Example of a basic MySQL query in PHP
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "myDB";

// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

// Perform a simple query
$sql = "SELECT id, name FROM users";
$result = $conn->query($sql);

if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
    // Output data of each row
    while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
        echo "id: " . $row["id"]. " - Name: " . $row["name"]. "<br>";
    }
} else {
    echo "0 results";
}

$conn->close();