What potential pitfalls should be considered when working with timestamps and dates in PHP?

When working with timestamps and dates in PHP, potential pitfalls to consider include time zone conversions, daylight saving time adjustments, and formatting inconsistencies. To mitigate these issues, it is recommended to always set the default time zone, use the DateTime class for date manipulation, and ensure consistent formatting throughout your code.

// Set the default time zone
date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');

// Create a DateTime object with the current date and time
$now = new DateTime();

// Format the date and time as a string
$formatted_date = $now->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');

echo $formatted_date;