How can the strtotime() function be utilized in PHP to manipulate dates effectively?

The strtotime() function in PHP can be utilized to manipulate dates effectively by converting textual date descriptions into Unix timestamps, which can then be easily manipulated and formatted. This function allows for easy date calculations, such as adding or subtracting days, weeks, months, or years from a given date.

// Example: Adding 1 week to the current date
$currentDate = date('Y-m-d');
$newDate = date('Y-m-d', strtotime('+1 week', strtotime($currentDate)));
echo $newDate;