How can PHP developers optimize the process of evaluating complex mathematical expressions in PHP scripts to improve performance and maintainability?

Complex mathematical expressions in PHP scripts can be optimized by using the eval() function to evaluate the expression as a string. This can improve performance by avoiding repetitive calculations and simplifying the code for better maintainability.

$expression = "2 * (3 + 4) / 5";
$result = eval("return $expression;");
echo $result;