Is it best practice to store dates as timestamps for easier manipulation in PHP?

Storing dates as timestamps in PHP is generally considered a best practice because timestamps are easier to manipulate and compare than traditional date formats. Timestamps are represented as integers, making them simpler to work with in calculations and sorting. To convert a date to a timestamp in PHP, you can use the strtotime() function.

$date = "2022-01-15";
$timestamp = strtotime($date);
echo $timestamp;