What is the recommended way to compare dates in PHP to ensure accurate results?

When comparing dates in PHP, it's important to ensure that the dates are in a format that allows for accurate comparison. One recommended way to compare dates in PHP is to convert them to Unix timestamps using the strtotime() function. This will convert the dates into a numeric value representing the number of seconds since the Unix Epoch (January 1, 1970), which can then be easily compared. 

$date1 = "2022-01-15";
$date2 = "2022-01-20";

$timestamp1 = strtotime($date1);
$timestamp2 = strtotime($date2);

if ($timestamp1 < $timestamp2) {
    echo "$date1 is before $date2";
} elseif ($timestamp1 > $timestamp2) {
    echo "$date1 is after $date2";
} else {
    echo "$date1 is the same as $date2";
}

Keywords

date comparison PHP DateTime timestamp accuracy

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