I am developing an API using Codeigniter and MongoDB.
I am not sure what date format that is the most “flexible” for the timestamp of
each document in the database.
Currently I am using: yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss
Is it better (for mongodb searching and internationalization) to use another format?
My question is just this, what is the best format for a timestamp in a MongoDB document?
Over the years, I have been forced to a very strong personal commitment to always storing date/time as the 10-digit Linux/Unix timestamp, which gives the current (add: local) time as seconds since the Epoch. Just a few moments ago, the time was 1329126719. To me, this is the most flexible format possible. When it comes time to display a date/time, it’s simple to convert the 10-digit timestamp to any string you care to show.
Edit: Perhaps a better choice for me would be milliseconds from the Epoch, since that seems to be increasingly favored as the art evolves.