What are the potential pitfalls of storing dates as timestamps in a database and converting them to readable formats in PHP?

Storing dates as timestamps in a database can make it difficult to read and manipulate the data directly. To address this issue, it's recommended to store dates in a readable format in the database and only convert them to timestamps when needed for calculations or comparisons. This approach simplifies date handling in PHP and improves code readability.

// Storing dates in a readable format in the database
$date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s'); // Store current date and time in 'Y-m-d H:i:s' format

// Converting stored date to timestamp if needed
$timestamp = strtotime($date); // Convert stored date to timestamp