How can timestamps be used effectively in PHP for date comparisons?

When working with date comparisons in PHP, it is often more effective to use timestamps rather than date strings. Timestamps represent a specific point in time as an integer value, making comparisons easier and more accurate. To convert a date string to a timestamp, you can use the strtotime() function in PHP. 

// Example: Comparing two dates using timestamps
$date1 = strtotime('2022-01-01'); // Convert date string to timestamp
$date2 = strtotime('2022-01-15'); // Convert date string to timestamp

if ($date1 < $date2) {
    echo 'Date 1 is before Date 2';
} elseif ($date1 > $date2) {
    echo 'Date 1 is after Date 2';
} else {
    echo 'Date 1 is the same as Date 2';
}

Keywords

timestamps PHP date comparisons strtotime DateTime

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