How can PHP developers efficiently handle date formats that include time zones like GMT+0200 (CEST)?

When handling date formats with time zones like GMT+0200 (CEST) in PHP, developers can efficiently handle this by using the DateTime object and setting the time zone appropriately. By creating a DateTime object with the desired date and time, and then setting the time zone to 'Europe/Berlin' (for CEST), PHP will automatically adjust the time to the correct time zone. This ensures that the date and time are accurately represented in the specified time zone.

$date = new DateTime('2022-10-31 12:00:00', new DateTimeZone('Europe/Berlin'));
echo $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s T'); // Output: 2022-10-31 12:00:00 CEST