What is the purpose of using mktime in PHP and what are some common pitfalls associated with its usage?

The purpose of using mktime in PHP is to create a Unix timestamp based on the parameters provided (hour, minute, second, month, day, year). One common pitfall associated with mktime is not taking into account the timezone when creating the timestamp, which can lead to inaccurate results.

// Example of using mktime with timezone consideration
$date = mktime(0, 0, 0, date('n'), date('j'), date('Y')); // Create a Unix timestamp for the current date
date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York'); // Set the timezone to New York
echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $date); // Output the timestamp in the specified timezone