What are potential pitfalls when using strtotime function in PHP for date calculations?

Potential pitfalls when using the strtotime function in PHP for date calculations include timezone discrepancies and unexpected results when parsing ambiguous date formats. To avoid these issues, it's recommended to set the timezone explicitly and use date formats that are unambiguous.

// Set the timezone explicitly before using strtotime
date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');

// Use unambiguous date formats to avoid unexpected results
$date = '2022-01-15';
$timestamp = strtotime($date);
echo date('Y-m-d', $timestamp);