What are the benefits of using a standardized date format like ISO 8601 in PHP?

When working with dates in PHP, using a standardized date format like ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD) can help avoid confusion and ensure consistency across different systems or platforms. This format is easily readable, sortable, and can be parsed by various date functions in PHP.

// Using ISO 8601 date format in PHP
$date = date('Y-m-d');
echo $date;