What are the best practices for utilizing PHP's date function to retrieve specific date information?

When using PHP's date function to retrieve specific date information, it is important to follow best practices to ensure accurate results. One common issue is not providing the correct format string to the date function, which can lead to unexpected output. To solve this, make sure to refer to the PHP documentation for the correct format characters to use when retrieving specific date information.

// Example of retrieving specific date information using PHP's date function
$date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s'); // Retrieves the current date and time in the format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
echo $date;