How can developers optimize the performance of PHP applications that rely on dynamic SQL queries for data retrieval?

To optimize the performance of PHP applications that rely on dynamic SQL queries for data retrieval, developers can use prepared statements instead of directly concatenating variables into the query string. Prepared statements help prevent SQL injection attacks and can improve query execution performance by allowing the database to cache query plans.

// Example of using prepared statements to optimize dynamic SQL queries
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username');
$stmt->execute(['username' => $username]);
$results = $stmt->fetchAll();