What are the best practices for calculating and manipulating dates and times in PHP, especially when dealing with future timestamps for user bans or timeouts?

When dealing with future timestamps for user bans or timeouts in PHP, it's important to use the DateTime class for accurate date and time calculations. This allows for easy manipulation of dates and times, such as adding or subtracting intervals. Additionally, storing timestamps in UTC format can help avoid timezone-related issues. 

// Example of calculating a future timestamp for a user ban
$banDuration = 7; // 7 days ban
$banEndDate = (new DateTime())->modify("+$banDuration days")->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
echo "User banned until: $banEndDate";

Keywords

DateTime strtotime timezones date calculations timestamp manipulation

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