What are the advantages of using DateTime objects for date comparisons in PHP?

When comparing dates in PHP, using DateTime objects provides a more reliable and accurate way to handle date and time calculations. DateTime objects offer a wide range of methods for manipulating dates, such as adding or subtracting intervals, comparing dates, and formatting dates in various ways. This approach is more intuitive and less error-prone compared to using functions like strtotime() or date() for date comparisons.

$date1 = new DateTime('2022-01-01');
$date2 = new DateTime('2022-01-15');

if ($date1 < $date2) {
    echo "Date 1 is before Date 2";
} else {
    echo "Date 2 is before Date 1";
}