What are the advantages and disadvantages of using ISO-standard date formats versus custom date formats in PHP applications?

When working with dates in PHP applications, using ISO-standard date formats (such as 'Y-m-d H:i:s') is generally recommended for consistency and compatibility across different systems. However, using custom date formats can provide more flexibility for displaying dates in a specific way. To ensure consistency and compatibility in your PHP applications, it is best to use ISO-standard date formats. However, if you need to display dates in a specific format, you can always format the date output using PHP's date() function.

// Using ISO-standard date format
$isoDate = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
echo $isoDate;

// Using custom date format
$customDate = date('F j, Y, g:i a');
echo $customDate;