What are the potential pitfalls of using != in a MySQL query in PHP?

Using != in a MySQL query in PHP can lead to unexpected results if the comparison involves NULL values. To avoid this issue, it's recommended to use the IS NOT NULL operator instead of != when comparing columns that may contain NULL values.

$query = "SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name IS NOT NULL";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

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