What is the best way to search for data in a MySQL database based on the first letter of a field in PHP?

To search for data in a MySQL database based on the first letter of a field in PHP, you can use a SQL query with the LIKE operator. You can use the following query to search for data where the field "column_name" starts with a specific letter:

$letter = 'A';
$query = "SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name LIKE '$letter%'";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Loop through the results
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    // Output the data
    echo $row['column_name'] . "<br>";
}