How can PHP handle date calculations and manipulations effectively, especially when dealing with birthdates and age calculations in a database context?

When dealing with birthdates and age calculations in PHP, it is important to use the DateTime class for accurate date manipulations. To calculate someone's age based on their birthdate, you can subtract the birthdate from the current date and extract the years. Storing birthdates as a DATE type in a database allows for easy calculations and comparisons.

// Example code for calculating age based on birthdate
$birthdate = new DateTime('1990-05-15');
$currentDate = new DateTime();
$age = $currentDate->diff($birthdate)->y;

echo "Age: " . $age;