What steps should be taken to ensure that dates are properly stored and manipulated in a MySQL database using PHP?

Dates should be stored in MySQL databases using the DATE or DATETIME data types to ensure proper storage and manipulation. When inserting dates into the database, use the date() function in PHP to format the date correctly. When retrieving dates from the database, use the strtotime() function in PHP to convert the date string back into a Unix timestamp for manipulation. 

// Inserting a date into the database
$date = date('Y-m-d', strtotime('2022-09-15'));
$query = "INSERT INTO table_name (date_column) VALUES ('$date')";
// Execute the query

// Retrieving a date from the database
$query = "SELECT date_column FROM table_name";
// Execute the query
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);
$row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result);
$date = strtotime($row['date_column']);

Keywords

MySQL PHP date storage manipulation

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