Laravel mutate date before saving to database? - php

Question

I have a date that's being selected in a datepicker in the following format
Y-m-d g:i A
So using AM/PM, it shows the following in my input field, which is correct
When I submit the form offcourse Laravel won't update the record because the format is unknown to my DATETIME field in mysql.
My 'date' field is added to the $dates array so it should be parsed by Laravel
I tried using a Mutator on my Model as following, without success
public function setDateAttribute($value)
{
$this->attributes['date'] = Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-m-d g:i A', $value)->format('Y-m-d H:i:s');
}
The original value is not being updated.
Any idea what I might be doing wrong?
Thank you

Answer 1

Take a look at Laravel's date mutators, this handles the accessing and mutating dates going into and out of the database for you much like it does with created_at and the other default dates.
Basically, you need to add the date field to the $dates array on your model like so:
<?php
namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class User extends Model
{
/**
* The attributes that should be mutated to dates.
*
* #var array
*/
protected $dates = [
'created_at', // Add if you're using timestamps on the model
'updated_at', // Add if you're using timestamps on the model
'deleted_at', // Add if you're using softDeletes on the model
'date'
];
}
This way when the model is persisted to the database it's done so as a DATETIME, whereas when it is being read from the database into your model it will be a Carbon instance

Answer 2

It seems that your carbon function is ok. But why it does not work, don't understand. But I have solution using PHP date function.
public function setDateAttribute($value)
{
$this->attributes['date'] = date("Y-m-d H:i:s", strtotime($value);
}

Answer 3

Laravel's date mutator expects a format like 'Y-m-d H:i:s', but you can use the $dateFormat attribute on your model to specify a different format. E.g.:
protected $dateFormat = 'Y-m-d g:i A';
Check out the Date Formats section in the docs under Date Mutators
Alternatively, you can parse the date using Carbon outside of the model, because attributes listed in the $dates will also accept Carbon instances:
$model->date = Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-m-d g:i A', '2016-11-29 02:00 PM');
This is the approach I typically use. To me this feels more like a front-end concern where you're trying to map a user-friendly format to one your models/DB expects, so I'll usually put this logic into a controller.