PhpMyAdmin adds WHERE 1 to every statement by default

Question

Just a curiosity question. Why phpMyadmin adds WHERE 1 to every statement in the SQL query input box?

For example,

 SELECT * FROM User WHERE 1

Answer 1

When generating dynamic queries, it's easier to always have a WHERE clause than to have an algorithm to remove it when it's not needed. All that WHERE 1 means is 'everything' and phpMyAdmin will not append it if you put a WHERE clause in your own query.

phpMyAdmin probably creates its queries by concatenating strings, so it'll generate say $selectStatement, $whereStatement and $limitStatement and then add them all together. I don't know if it still does it, but it always used to add a LIMIT clause even when not needed as well.

It's just a simple and comprehensive way to build an SQL statement in PHP, and won't affect your query results at all.