What are the potential pitfalls of using a recursive MySQL query to display nested folder structures in PHP?

One potential pitfall of using a recursive MySQL query to display nested folder structures in PHP is the risk of running into performance issues, especially with large datasets. To mitigate this, you can limit the depth of recursion or implement caching mechanisms to reduce the number of database queries. 

<?php
function displayNestedFolders($parent_id, $depth = 0) {
    $query = "SELECT * FROM folders WHERE parent_id = $parent_id";
    $result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);
    
    while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
        echo str_repeat("-", $depth) . $row['name'] . "<br>";
        displayNestedFolders($row['id'], $depth + 1);
    }
}

// Start displaying nested folders from the root folder
displayNestedFolders(0);
?>

Keywords

MySQL recursive query nested folder structures PHP performance bottleneck

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