Why is using SELECT * considered bad practice in PHP database queries?

Using SELECT * is considered bad practice in PHP database queries because it retrieves all columns from the table, which can lead to unnecessary data transfer and potentially impact performance. It's better to explicitly specify the columns you need to retrieve to improve query efficiency and reduce the risk of fetching unnecessary data. 

// Specify the columns you want to retrieve instead of using SELECT *
$query = "SELECT column1, column2, column3 FROM table_name";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Fetch data from the result set
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    // Process the data
}

Keywords

SELECT * PHP database queries performance optimization

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