Why is it recommended to always specify the columns in the SELECT statement rather than using SELECT * in PHP?

Specifying the columns in the SELECT statement is recommended over using SELECT * in PHP because it provides better performance and readability. When you use SELECT *, the database engine has to fetch all columns from the table, which can be inefficient if you only need specific columns. Additionally, specifying the columns explicitly makes your code more maintainable and helps prevent unexpected behavior if the table structure changes in the future.

// Specify the columns in the SELECT statement
$query = "SELECT column1, column2, column3 FROM table_name";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Fetch and process the results
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    // Process the data
}