In what situations should JOIN be preferred over subqueries in MySQL queries, as suggested in the provided PHP forum thread?

JOIN should be preferred over subqueries in MySQL queries when dealing with large datasets or complex queries. JOINs are generally more efficient and perform better than subqueries, especially when working with multiple tables. Subqueries can be slower and less optimized compared to JOINs, so using JOINs can improve query performance.

$query = "SELECT users.username, orders.order_id 
          FROM users 
          JOIN orders ON users.user_id = orders.user_id 
          WHERE orders.total_amount > 100";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

if (mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0) {
    while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
        echo "Username: " . $row['username'] . " | Order ID: " . $row['order_id'] . "<br>";
    }
} else {
    echo "No results found.";
}