What are some recommended best practices for handling timestamps in PHP applications?

Handling timestamps in PHP applications can be tricky due to differences in timezones, daylight saving time changes, and formatting. It is recommended to use PHP's built-in DateTime class along with the DateTimeZone class to ensure accurate handling of timestamps. Additionally, storing timestamps in a standardized format like Unix timestamp or ISO 8601 can help with consistency and interoperability. 

// Create a DateTime object with the current timestamp
$timestamp = new DateTime('now', new DateTimeZone('UTC'));

// Format the timestamp in ISO 8601 format
$formattedTimestamp = $timestamp->format('Y-m-d\TH:i:s\Z');

echo $formattedTimestamp;

Keywords

DateTime strtotime timezones date formatting timestamp conversion

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