What are the potential pitfalls of using "SELECT *" in PHP queries, and what are the alternatives?

Using "SELECT *" in PHP queries can lead to performance issues and security vulnerabilities. It can retrieve unnecessary columns and expose sensitive data if the table structure changes. To avoid these pitfalls, it's recommended to explicitly list the columns you want to retrieve in your query.

// Explicitly list the columns you want to retrieve in your query
$sql = "SELECT column1, column2, column3 FROM table_name WHERE condition = value";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);