Storing datetime as UTC in PHP/MySQL

Question

Everywhere I read about converting time to a user\'s timezone says that the best method is to store a date and time in UTC then just add the user\'s timezone offset to this

Answer 1

I would suggest inserting the date in UTC time zone. This will save you a lot of headaches in the future with daylight saving problems.

INSERT INTO abc_table (registrationtime) VALUES (UTC_TIMESTAMP())

When I query my data I use the following PHP script:

setTimezone(new DateTimeZone('Europe/Istanbul'));
  echo $formatted_date_long=date_format($dt_obj, 'Y-m-d H:i:s');
}
?>

You can replace the DateTimeZone value with one of the available PHP timezones.