Formatting a Carbon date instance

Question

I have an array that returns the following date time:

$item['created_at'] => "2015-10-28 19:18:44"

How do I change the date to M d Y format in Laravel using Carbon?

Currently it returns with an error

$suborder['payment_date'] = $item['created_at']->format('M d Y');

Solution 1

First parse the created_at field as Carbon object.

$createdAt = Carbon::parse($item['created_at']);

Then you can use

$suborder['payment_date'] = $createdAt->format('M d Y');

Solution 2

Date Casting for Laravel 6.x and 7.x

/**
* The attributes that should be cast.
*
* @var array
*/
protected $casts = [
   'created_at' => 'datetime:Y-m-d',
   'updated_at' => 'datetime:Y-m-d',
   'deleted_at' => 'datetime:Y-m-d h:i:s'
];

It easy for Laravel 5 in your Model add property protected $dates = ['created_at', 'cached_at']. See detail here https://laravel.com/docs/5.2/eloquent-mutators#date-mutators

Date Mutators: Laravel 5.x

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', 'updated_at', 'deleted_at'];
}

You can format date like this $user->created_at->format('M d Y'); or any format that support by PHP.

Solution 3

$suborder['payment_date'] = Carbon::parse($item['created_at'])->format('M d Y');

Solution 4

If you are using eloquent model (by looking at your code, i think you are), you dont need to convert it into array. Just use it as object. Becaus elike Thomas Kim said, by default it is a Carbon instance

So it should be

$suborder['payment_date'] = $item->created_at->format('Y-m-d')

But if it is not then, you need convert it to Carbon object as Milan Maharjan answer

$createdAt = Carbon::parse($item['created_at']);

Solution 5

Declare in model:

class ModelName extends Model
{      

 protected $casts = [
    'created_at' => 'datetime:d/m/Y', // Change your format
    'updated_at' => 'datetime:d/m/Y',
];

View more solutions

Comments

[Marc Pont]

I tried this approach but when the field is null it converts into a weird date: 'date_confirmation' => string '-0001-11-30 00:00:00' (length=20). You know why is doing this and how I can solve it?

[Roland]

This is a per-usage approach. I look for a more general approach, means a config entry and All Carbon\Carbon attributes are formatted the same (I already use protected $dates = ['my_date_at'];).

[Roland]

No need for this, created_at is converted to Carbon\Carbon automatically, if protected $timestamps = false; is NOT set. You also need a $table->timestamps(); in your migration file.

[Roland]

This is already a better solution as it is a per-model-approach, yet a bit incomplete. For Laravel's internal columns created_at and updated_at there is no need for protected $dates = []; in your Model. But if you have custom columns like I have, you have add those to that array and don't add protected $timestamps = true; to your model as this is the default.

[Roland]

Payment->created_at is then renamed to payment_date and no usage of direct Payment class (Eloquent model) which allows only array $item as type-hint. Maybe not what you want?

[Roland]

Good point with Payment $payment usage, so no need for converting it to array, you can always use direct Eloquent model objects in your blade templates. But still I would prefer not renaming created_at to payment_date.

[Roland]

May I ask why I'm getting down-votes for this answer? I just got -2 which feels a bit unfair because my critics are at 2nd thought good.

[Roland]

This is only true for records been created after created_at has been added, e.g. by adding $table->timestamps() to your migration file, for records before it, created_at will be NULL and then this will trigger an error about a method call on a non-object call.