Should I use one big SQL Select statement or several small ones?

Question

I\'m building a PHP page with data sent from MySQL.

Is it better to have

• 1 SELECT query with 4 table joins, or
• 4 small SELE

Answer 1

I would say 1 query with the join. This way you need to hit the server only once. And if your tables are joined with indexes, it should be fast.