What potential issues can arise when handling date and time fields in a MySQL database using PHP for a news system?

One potential issue that can arise when handling date and time fields in a MySQL database using PHP for a news system is time zone discrepancies. To ensure consistency, it's important to store all dates and times in UTC format in the database and convert them to the user's local time zone when displaying them. This can be achieved by setting the default time zone in PHP and using functions like date_default_timezone_set() and date() to convert and display the dates and times correctly. 

// Set the default time zone to UTC
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');

// Retrieve the date and time from the database
$timestamp = strtotime($row['date_time']);

// Convert the date and time to the user's local time zone
$date = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', $timestamp);
echo $date;

Keywords

MySQL PHP date and time fields timezone formatting

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