What best practices should be followed when working with dates and timestamps in PHP?

When working with dates and timestamps in PHP, it is important to ensure that you are using the correct timezone and format for your specific use case. It is recommended to use PHP's DateTime class for handling dates and timestamps as it provides a wide range of functionalities for manipulating and formatting dates.

// Set the default timezone to use
date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');

// Create a new DateTime object with the current date and time
$now = new DateTime();

// Format the date and time in a specific format
$formatted_date = $now->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

echo $formatted_date;