How can dates be effectively stored and queried in a MySQL database for a PHP calendar application?

Dates can be effectively stored in a MySQL database by using the DATE data type. When querying dates, it is important to use the appropriate MySQL date functions to manipulate and compare dates accurately. For a PHP calendar application, you can use the strtotime function to convert dates to Unix timestamps for easy comparison and manipulation.

// Storing dates in MySQL database
$date = date('Y-m-d'); // Get the current date in YYYY-MM-DD format
$query = "INSERT INTO events (event_date) VALUES ('$date')";
// Execute the query to store the date in the database

// Querying dates from MySQL database
$start_date = '2022-01-01';
$end_date = '2022-12-31';
$query = "SELECT * FROM events WHERE event_date BETWEEN '$start_date' AND '$end_date'";
// Execute the query to retrieve events within the specified date range