What are the potential pitfalls of relying on hardcoded data in HTML tables for PHP applications, especially in terms of scalability and performance?

Relying on hardcoded data in HTML tables for PHP applications can lead to scalability and performance issues as the data is not dynamic and cannot easily be updated or modified. To solve this issue, it is recommended to store the data in a database and retrieve it dynamically using PHP to populate the HTML table.

<?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 database for data
$sql = "SELECT * FROM table_name";
$result = $conn->query($sql);

// Populate HTML table with dynamic data
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
    echo "<table>";
    while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
        echo "<tr><td>" . $row["column1"] . "</td><td>" . $row["column2"] . "</td></tr>";
    }
    echo "</table>";
} else {
    echo "0 results";
}

// Close connection
$conn->close();
?>