Are there any specific PHP functions or libraries that are recommended for handling date and time operations effectively?

When working with date and time operations in PHP, it is recommended to use the DateTime class and its methods for effective handling. This class provides a wide range of functionalities for manipulating dates, calculating differences between dates, formatting dates, and more.

// Create a DateTime object for the current date and time
$now = new DateTime();

// Get the current date and time in a specific format
$currentDateTime = $now->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

// Calculate a future date by adding a specific number of days
$futureDate = $now->modify('+1 day')->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

// Calculate the difference between two dates
$date1 = new DateTime('2022-01-01');
$date2 = new DateTime('2022-02-01');
$interval = $date1->diff($date2);
$diff = $interval->format('%R%a days');

echo "Current date and time: $currentDateTime\n";
echo "Future date: $futureDate\n";
echo "Difference between two dates: $diff\n";