What potential issue is causing the function to return an empty array instead of the expected results?

The potential issue causing the function to return an empty array instead of the expected results could be that the query is not executed properly or the data is not being fetched correctly from the database. To solve this issue, you should ensure that the query is valid and executed successfully, and also check if the fetched data is being stored and returned correctly.

// Potential issue: The query is not executed properly or the data is not fetched correctly.
// Solution: Check the query execution and data fetching process.

// Example code snippet with the fix:
function getProducts($category) {
    $conn = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");

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

    $sql = "SELECT * FROM products WHERE category = '$category'";
    $result = $conn->query($sql);

    $products = array();

    if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
        while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
            $products[] = $row;
        }
    }

    $conn->close();

    return $products;
}

// Usage:
$category = "electronics";
$products = getProducts($category);
print_r($products);