What is UTC zone? Why do you store values in UTC format in your database?
UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) is a standardized time that is widely used as a reference time, for example, for setting the time on a computer or for synchronizing time across multiple systems. UTC is often used as the standard time for time zones worldwide.
UTC time is stored in the database because it is a widely used standard, and it eliminates the issues that can arise from using different time zones. When all the data is stored in UTC format, it eliminates the confusion that can arise from trying to compare or process data from different time zones. It also makes it easy to convert the time to any time zone as needed. Additionally, it makes it easier to compare and combine data from different sources, which may have been recorded in different time zones.
Some advantages of storing data in the UTC format include:
- Consistency: Using a single, standardized time format makes it easier to ensure consistency and accuracy when comparing and processing data from different sources.
- Time Zone Independence: UTC is not tied to a specific time zone, so it eliminates any confusion that can arise when working with data from different time zones.
- Easy Conversion: UTC can be easily converted to any other time zone, making it convenient to display the data to users in their local time.
- Simplifies global collaboration: Storing the data in UTC format makes it easy for people in different time zones to work together on the same data set.
- Simplifies data migration: Storing data in UTC format makes it easy to move data from one location to another, as the time zone information is not embedded in the data.
- Reducing data storage: If the data is stored in UTC format, it eliminates the need to store time zone information with each data point, which can save space in the database.
Commonly used UTC PHP function?
In PHP, some commonly used functions to work with UTC time are:- date('U') - returns the current timestamp in seconds since the Unix Epoch (January 1, 1970 00:00:00 UTC)
- gmdate('Y-m-d H:i:s') - returns the current date and time in UTC format
- time() - returns the current timestamp in seconds since the Unix Epoch (January 1, 1970 00:00:00 UTC)
- DateTime class - can be used to create a new date object with the current date and time, or to convert an existing date to UTC.
$date= new DateTime('now' new DateTimeZone('UTC'));
or you can use the following to convert a date to UTC
$date->setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('UTC'));
Additionally, you can use the date_default_timezone_set('UTC') function to set the default time zone for all date/time functions in a PHP script to UTC.
It's worth noting that one of the most commonly used function to get UTC time is gmdate function because it returns the date and time in UTC format which is easy to use and store in database.
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