Laravel uses the Carbon date package by default, you can learn about that here: https://github.com/briannesbitt/Carbon

Any time you access a date property from a model you are automatically returned an instance of Carbon.

You can use the format method to specify a regular php date.

For example:

$user = User::find(1);

$date_string = $user->created_at->format('M j, Y'); /* returns something like March 11, 2014*/

If you have other date fields in your model, you can use attribute getters to change them to Carbon instances:

// the fieldname is arrival_date

public function getArrivalDateAttribute()
{
    return Carbon::parse($this->attributes['arrival_date']); 
}

You can then use format in your view:

$model->arrival_date->format('F j, Y');

Read more in the docs: http://laravel.com/docs/eloquent#accessors-and-mutators

@meigwilym , there's a better way to do that using date mutators, documented here, in the section right after the one you linked :)

http://laravel.com/docs/eloquent#date-mutators

@andrewsuzuki Wow - I hadn't read that section properly!

So just add my_date_field to the array in getDates()? Much simpler idea.

Off to do it right now!

Thanks,

Mei

So, if I use it in my view like so:

{{ $more_recent_updates->prod_update->format('M j, Y') }}

I get a fatal error exception and this "Call to a member function format() on a non-object".

What would cause that?

Thank you. Sorry about that. I didn't quite understand. (This is my first Laravel site.)

I appreciate the help.

No problem, glad to help!

How can i set format with where()...?

$today           = date( "Y-m-d H:i:s" );

$presentStudents = StudentAttendance::where( 'DATE_FORMAT(attendance_date,\'%Y-%m-%d\'', $today )
->get( [ 'student_id' ] )
->toArray();

and i want to use on just one place in my project...