What are the potential pitfalls of using subqueries in MySQL queries in PHP for sorting data?

Using subqueries in MySQL queries for sorting data can lead to performance issues, especially when dealing with large datasets. To avoid these pitfalls, it's recommended to use JOINs instead of subqueries whenever possible. JOINs are generally more efficient and can help optimize the query execution.

<?php
// Connect to database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "database";

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

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

// Query using JOIN instead of subquery for sorting
$sql = "SELECT t1.column1, t2.column2
        FROM table1 t1
        JOIN table2 t2 ON t1.id = t2.id
        ORDER BY t1.column1";

$result = $conn->query($sql);

// Fetch and display results
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
    while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
        echo "Column1: " . $row["column1"]. " - Column2: " . $row["column2"]. "<br>";
    }
} else {
    echo "0 results";
}

$conn->close();
?>