What are the potential pitfalls of not properly linking columns when retrieving data from multiple tables in PHP?

If columns are not properly linked when retrieving data from multiple tables in PHP, it can result in inaccurate or incomplete results being returned. To avoid this issue, it is important to correctly specify the columns that are being used to join the tables together in the SQL query. 

// Example of linking columns properly when retrieving data from multiple tables in PHP
$sql = "SELECT column1, column2, table1.column3, table2.column4
        FROM table1
        JOIN table2 ON table1.id = table2.table1_id
        WHERE table1.column1 = 'value'";

$result = mysqli_query($connection, $sql);

if (mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0) {
    while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
        // Process the retrieved data
    }
} else {
    echo "No results found.";
}

Keywords

SQL JOIN data retrieval database tables PHP errors

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