What is the difference between using REPLACE INTO and UPDATE in PHP when updating data in a MySQL database?

When updating data in a MySQL database using PHP, the main difference between using REPLACE INTO and UPDATE lies in how they handle existing data. - REPLACE INTO will either insert a new row or update an existing row based on the primary key or unique index. If a row with the same key already exists, it will be replaced with the new data. - UPDATE, on the other hand, will only update existing rows that match the specified condition, without inserting new rows. To implement this in PHP, you can use the following code snippet:

// Using REPLACE INTO
$sql = "REPLACE INTO table_name (column1, column2) VALUES ('value1', 'value2')";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);

// Using UPDATE
$sql = "UPDATE table_name SET column1 = 'new_value' WHERE condition = 'some_condition'";
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);