What is the recommended data type to use for storing dates in a MySQL database when working with PHP?

When working with dates in a MySQL database using PHP, the recommended data type to use is the `DATETIME` type. This allows for storing dates and times in the format 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS', providing a standard way to work with dates in MySQL queries and PHP code. 

// Example of creating a table with a DATETIME column in MySQL
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "myDB";

// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

// Create table with a DATETIME column
$sql = "CREATE TABLE MyDates (
    id INT(6) UNSIGNED AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    event_date DATETIME
)";

if ($conn->query($sql) === TRUE) {
    echo "Table MyDates created successfully";
} else {
    echo "Error creating table: " . $conn->error;
}

$conn->close();

Keywords

PHP MySQL data type dates storage

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