What are the best practices for handling date formats in a MySQL database when using PHP?

When handling date formats in a MySQL database with PHP, it is important to ensure that dates are stored in the correct format to prevent any issues with querying or displaying the data. One common best practice is to use the MySQL DATE or DATETIME data types to store dates, as they provide built-in functionality for handling date operations. Additionally, when inserting or retrieving dates from the database, it is recommended to use the date() and strtotime() functions in PHP to format and parse dates accordingly.

// Inserting a date into the database
$date = date('Y-m-d'); // Format the date as 'YYYY-MM-DD'
$query = "INSERT INTO table_name (date_column) VALUES ('$date')";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

// Retrieving a date from the database
$query = "SELECT date_column FROM table_name";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);
$row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result);
$date = strtotime($row['date_column']); // Parse the date from the database
$formatted_date = date('F j, Y', $date); // Format the date as 'Month Day, Year'
echo $formatted_date;