What are some common pitfalls to avoid when working with dates and timestamps in PHP and MySQL?

One common pitfall when working with dates and timestamps in PHP and MySQL is not properly handling time zones. To avoid issues with time zone conversions and discrepancies, it is important to always set and handle time zones consistently across your PHP and MySQL environments.

// Set the default time zone for PHP
date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');

// Set the time zone for MySQL connection
$mysqli = new mysqli('localhost', 'username', 'password', 'database');
$mysqli->query("SET time_zone = '-05:00'");