What are the potential pitfalls of storing timestamps in MySQL using PHP?

When storing timestamps in MySQL using PHP, a potential pitfall is that MySQL may interpret the timestamp incorrectly due to differences in timezones between the PHP server and MySQL server. To avoid this issue, it's recommended to store timestamps in UTC format and convert them to the desired timezone when displaying them to users. 

// Store timestamp in UTC format
$timestamp = gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s');

// Convert UTC timestamp to desired timezone
$timezone = new DateTimeZone('America/New_York');
$date = new DateTime($timestamp, new DateTimeZone('UTC'));
$date->setTimezone($timezone);
$timestamp_ny = $date->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

// Insert timestamp into MySQL
$query = "INSERT INTO table_name (timestamp_column) VALUES ('$timestamp')";
mysqli_query($connection, $query);

Keywords

timestamps MySQL PHP timezone data integrity

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