What are the potential pitfalls of using the MIN() function in a SQL query for filtering data in PHP?

Using the MIN() function in a SQL query for filtering data in PHP can potentially return unexpected results if there are NULL values in the column being used. To avoid this issue, you can use the COALESCE() function to replace NULL values with a default value before applying the MIN() function.

$query = "SELECT MIN(COALESCE(column_name, default_value)) FROM table_name WHERE condition";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Fetch and use the result as needed