What are the benefits and drawbacks of using UNIX timestamps for date storage in PHP?

Using UNIX timestamps for date storage in PHP can be beneficial because it allows for easy comparison of dates, calculation of time differences, and sorting of dates. However, it may not be as human-readable as storing dates in a traditional date format, which can make debugging and troubleshooting more challenging. 

// Storing a date in a UNIX timestamp format
$date = strtotime('2022-01-01');

// Converting UNIX timestamp to a human-readable date format
$human_readable_date = date('Y-m-d', $date);

echo $human_readable_date;

Keywords

UNIX timestamps date storage benefits drawbacks PHP

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