Are there any specific functions or methods in PHP that can handle date and time conversions efficiently?

When working with date and time conversions in PHP, the `DateTime` class provides a convenient and efficient way to handle various date and time operations. This class allows for easy conversion between different date formats, timezones, and calculations such as adding or subtracting time intervals.

// Example code snippet using DateTime class for date and time conversions
$dateString = '2022-01-01 12:00:00';
$dateTime = new DateTime($dateString);
$dateTime->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('America/New_York'));
echo $dateTime->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');