In a PHP application, what are the advantages and disadvantages of converting dates to UNIX timestamps for storage in a database compared to storing them in a different format?

When storing dates in a database in a PHP application, converting them to UNIX timestamps can offer advantages such as easier comparison and manipulation of dates, as well as efficient storage as integers. However, it may be less human-readable and require additional processing to display in a user-friendly format. Storing dates in a different format, such as MySQL's DATETIME format, can be more straightforward for displaying and querying dates, but may require more storage space and could be less efficient for certain operations.

// Convert a date to UNIX timestamp before storing in the database
$date = "2022-01-01";
$timestamp = strtotime($date);

// Store $timestamp in the database

// Retrieve $timestamp from the database
$storedTimestamp = 1640995200;

// Convert UNIX timestamp back to date for display
$convertedDate = date("Y-m-d", $storedTimestamp);
echo $convertedDate;