What are the potential pitfalls of subtracting two date strings in PHP?

Subtracting two date strings in PHP can lead to unexpected results due to differences in date formats and timezones. To accurately calculate the difference between two dates, it's recommended to first convert the date strings into DateTime objects and then perform the subtraction. This ensures that the dates are handled correctly, taking into account timezones and daylight saving time changes.

$date1 = new DateTime('2022-01-01');
$date2 = new DateTime('2022-01-10');
$interval = $date1->diff($date2);
echo $interval->format('%R%a days');