What potential issues can arise when calculating time differences in PHP, especially when comparing current time to a stored database time?

When calculating time differences in PHP, especially when comparing current time to a stored database time, potential issues can arise due to differences in timezones or date formats. To solve this issue, it is recommended to use PHP's DateTime class to ensure consistent handling of timezones and formats.

// Get the current time
$current_time = new DateTime();

// Get the stored database time
$stored_time = new DateTime($row['database_time']); // Assuming $row['database_time'] contains the stored time

// Calculate the time difference
$time_difference = $current_time->diff($stored_time);

// Output the time difference
echo $time_difference->format('%H hours, %i minutes, %s seconds');