In what situations would using PHP to calculate time differences be more efficient or accurate compared to manual calculations?

When dealing with time differences that involve time zones, daylight saving time changes, or leap years, using PHP to calculate time differences can be more efficient and accurate compared to manual calculations. PHP has built-in functions such as `strtotime()` and `date_diff()` that handle these complexities automatically, ensuring accurate results without the need for manual adjustments.

$date1 = new DateTime('2022-01-01 12:00:00', new DateTimeZone('America/New_York'));
$date2 = new DateTime('2022-01-02 12:00:00', new DateTimeZone('America/Los_Angeles'));

$interval = $date1->diff($date2);

echo $interval->format('%R%a days %H hours %I minutes');