How can PHP developers avoid common mistakes when calculating date differences, such as overlooking the inclusion of leap years in calculations?

When calculating date differences in PHP, developers should account for leap years to ensure accurate results. One way to do this is by utilizing PHP's built-in DateTime class, which automatically handles leap years when calculating date intervals.

$date1 = new DateTime('2022-01-01');
$date2 = new DateTime('2023-01-01');
$interval = $date1->diff($date2);
echo $interval->format('%a days');