In what ways can PHP developers improve their understanding and implementation of SQL queries to avoid duplicate data issues in their applications?

To avoid duplicate data issues in their applications, PHP developers can improve their understanding and implementation of SQL queries by using the DISTINCT keyword in their SELECT statements. This keyword ensures that only unique rows are returned, eliminating duplicates in the result set.

$query = "SELECT DISTINCT column1, column2 FROM table_name";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

if (mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0) {
    while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
        // Process the unique data here
    }
}