What is the significance of using the GROUP BY clause in PHP when querying a database?

When querying a database in PHP, the GROUP BY clause is used to group rows that have the same values in specified columns. This is useful when you want to perform aggregate functions like SUM, COUNT, AVG, etc., on groups of rows rather than individual rows. It helps in organizing and summarizing data in a more meaningful way.

$query = "SELECT column1, SUM(column2) FROM table_name GROUP BY column1";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

if(mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0) {
    while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
        echo $row['column1'] . ": " . $row['SUM(column2)'] . "<br>";
    }
}