What are the potential pitfalls of using SELECT * in SQL queries?

Using SELECT * in SQL queries can lead to performance issues and inefficiencies, as it retrieves all columns from the table regardless of whether they are needed. This can result in unnecessary data transfer and processing, especially when dealing with large tables. To avoid these pitfalls, it is recommended to explicitly specify the columns needed in the SELECT statement. 

// Instead of using SELECT *, specify the columns needed in the query
$sql = "SELECT column1, column2, column3 FROM table_name WHERE condition = 'value'";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);

// Process the query result as needed

Keywords

SQL queries SELECT * performance data retrieval security.

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