What are some best practices for handling date and time calculations in PHP to ensure accuracy and efficiency?

When handling date and time calculations in PHP, it is important to use the appropriate functions provided by the language to ensure accuracy and efficiency. One common mistake is not taking into account timezones, which can lead to incorrect calculations. It is recommended to always work with timestamps and use functions like `strtotime()` and `date()` to manipulate dates and times effectively.

// Example: Calculate the difference in days between two dates
$date1 = strtotime('2022-01-01');
$date2 = strtotime('2022-02-01');

$diff_in_days = floor(($date2 - $date1) / (60 * 60 * 24));

echo "The difference in days between the two dates is: " . $diff_in_days;