What is the importance of using a JOIN statement when comparing data from two SQL tables in PHP?

When comparing data from two SQL tables in PHP, using a JOIN statement is important because it allows you to combine rows from two or more tables based on a related column between them. This ensures that you can retrieve data from both tables that are related to each other, making it easier to work with and analyze the data.

<?php
// Connect to the database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "myDB";

$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

// SQL query using JOIN statement to compare data from two tables
$sql = "SELECT table1.column1, table2.column2
        FROM table1
        JOIN table2 ON table1.common_column = table2.common_column";

$result = $conn->query($sql);

if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
    // Output data of each row
    while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
        echo "Column1: " . $row["column1"]. " - Column2: " . $row["column2"]. "<br>";
    }
} else {
    echo "0 results";
}

$conn->close();
?>