What are some best practices for using mktime and date functions in PHP?

When using mktime and date functions in PHP, it is important to ensure that you are handling time zones correctly to avoid unexpected results. One best practice is to always set the default time zone using date_default_timezone_set() before using mktime or date functions. This will ensure that the timestamps and dates are calculated and displayed accurately based on the specified time zone.

// Set the default time zone to UTC
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');

// Create a timestamp using mktime
$timestamp = mktime(0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2022);

// Format the timestamp using date function
$date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $timestamp);

echo $date;