What are the advantages of using DateTime or similar data types for storing date and time values in a database compared to varchar?

Storing date and time values as DateTime or similar data types in a database provides several advantages compared to using varchar. These advantages include better data integrity, built-in date and time functions for querying and manipulation, and easier sorting and indexing of date and time values. 

// Using DateTime data type in PHP to store date and time values in a MySQL database
$date = new DateTime('2022-01-01 12:00:00');
$dateString = $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

// Inserting the date and time value into a MySQL database
$query = "INSERT INTO table_name (date_column) VALUES ('$dateString')";
// Execute the query using your database connection

Keywords

DateTime data types database varchar advantages

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