Laravel format DateTime from database result

Question

My database stores two dates in the mysql DateTime format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS. When I get this data (with other strings etc), I want to convert it to another format, maybe DD.MM.YYYY HH:MM:SS and display it on my view in a table cell. My database dates are called date_begin and date_end.

Better, when I get this dates from database, convert it to DD.MM.YYYY format, separate the date and the time, store the time in a custom string ("HH1:MM1 - HH2:MM2") and bring both on my view.

How can I achieve this? I found some examples to convert on the view, not in the controller, but I think this is not good for MVC.

Answer 1

Not sure where you've gotten the impression that "formatting the date in the view is not good for MVC", because that's not a problem whatsoever.

If you're using Eloquent Models you can do it very easily:

1. Add the columns to the $dates property in your model class:

protected $dates = ['date_begin', 'date_end'];

This will ensure that the values get mutated to Carbon instances.

2. In your view files you can use the format method that Carbon offers like so:

<!-- To use only the date with the given format -->
{{ $item->date_begin->format('Y.m.d') }}

<!-- To use only the time with the given format -->
{{ $item->date_begin->format('H:i:s') }}

<!-- To use both date and time with the given format -->
{{ $item->date_begin->format('Y.m.d H:i:s') }}

There's no need to split the value in time and date, just show what you want from the DateTime value using whatever format you want.

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If you're not using Eloquent models, then you can manually use Carbon to format your value like so:

{{ Carbon\Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-m-d H:i:s', $item->date_begin)->format('Y.m.d') }}