Is using mktime() to create timestamps a best practice for sorting data in PHP?

Using mktime() to create timestamps is a common practice in PHP for sorting data because it allows you to easily generate timestamps based on specific date and time values. This function returns a Unix timestamp which can be used for sorting data in chronological order. It is a reliable method for creating timestamps and can be used in various scenarios where sorting by date or time is required.

// Example of using mktime() to create timestamps for sorting data
$dates = array(
    '2022-01-15',
    '2022-03-10',
    '2021-12-05',
    '2022-02-20'
);

// Sort dates in ascending order
usort($dates, function($a, $b) {
    return mktime(0, 0, 0, substr($a, 5, 2), substr($a, 8, 2), substr($a, 0, 4)) - mktime(0, 0, 0, substr($b, 5, 2), substr($b, 8, 2), substr($b, 0, 4));
});

// Output sorted dates
print_r($dates);