In what situations would it be more appropriate to handle case sensitivity in database queries rather than in PHP code?

When dealing with database queries, it may be more appropriate to handle case sensitivity within the query itself rather than in PHP code if you want to ensure consistent behavior across different environments or if you want to optimize query performance. This can be particularly useful when working with databases that have case-sensitive collations or when you want to perform case-insensitive searches efficiently.

// Example of handling case sensitivity in a MySQL query
$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE LOWER(username) = LOWER(:username)";
$stmt = $pdo->prepare($query);
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->execute();