Why is it recommended to use LEFT JOIN instead of INNER JOIN when fetching data from multiple tables in PHP applications?

When fetching data from multiple tables in PHP applications, it is recommended to use LEFT JOIN instead of INNER JOIN because LEFT JOIN will return all records from the left table (the first table mentioned in the query) and matching records from the right table, while INNER JOIN will only return records with matching values in both tables. This ensures that all records from the left table are included in the result set, even if there are no matching records in the right table. 

$query = "SELECT * FROM table1 LEFT JOIN table2 ON table1.id = table2.table1_id";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

if(mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0) {
    while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
        // Process the fetched data
    }
}

Keywords

LEFT JOIN INNER JOIN fetching data multiple tables PHP applications

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