What are common pitfalls when sorting dates in PHP using MySQL?

When sorting dates in PHP using MySQL, a common pitfall is not using the correct date format for sorting, which can lead to unexpected results. To ensure proper sorting, it is important to use the correct date format that MySQL can understand. One way to solve this issue is to use the DATE_FORMAT() function in your MySQL query to format the dates in a way that can be properly sorted.

// Example of sorting dates in PHP using MySQL with the correct date format
$query = "SELECT * FROM table_name ORDER BY DATE_FORMAT(date_column, '%Y-%m-%d') DESC";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Fetch and display the sorted results
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    echo $row['date_column'] . "<br>";
}