What best practices should be followed when working with dates in PHP, as suggested by the PHP manual?

When working with dates in PHP, it is important to follow best practices to ensure accurate and reliable date handling. The PHP manual suggests using the DateTime class for date manipulation and formatting, as it provides a more robust and object-oriented approach to working with dates. Additionally, it is recommended to set the default timezone using date_default_timezone_set() to avoid inconsistencies in date calculations. Lastly, always validate user input and use proper error handling to prevent unexpected behavior.

// Set default timezone
date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');

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

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

echo $formatted_date;