Laravel's custom casts enable tailored data transformations, extending beyond built-in casting capabilities to handle complex data types and business logic.
Here is an example of using a phone number formatter using custom casts:
<?php

namespace App\Casts;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Database\Eloquent\CastsAttributes;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class PhoneNumber implements CastsAttributes
{
public function get(Model $model, string $key, mixed $value, array $attributes): string
{
return sprintf(
"+%d (%d) %d-%d",
...explode('|', $value)
);
}

public function set(Model $model, string $key, mixed $value, array $attributes): string
{
$value = preg_replace('/[^0-9]/', '', $value);
return implode('|', [
substr($value, 0, 1),
substr($value, 1, 3),
substr($value, 4, 3),
substr($value, 7)
]);
}
}

And another example of using an address formatter:
<?php

namespace App\Casts;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Database\Eloquent\CastsAttributes;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;

class Address implements CastsAttributes
{
public function get(Model $model, string $key, mixed $value, array $attributes): array
{
$data = json_decode($value, true);

return [
'street' => $data['street'],
'city' => $data['city'],
'state' => $data['state'],
'postal_code' => $data['postal_code'],
'formatted' => sprintf(
'%s, %s, %s %s',
$data['street'],
$data['city'],
$data['state'],
$data['postal_code']
)
];
}

public function set(Model $model, string $key, mixed $value, array $attributes): string
{
return json_encode([
'street' => $value['street'],
'city' => $value['city'],
'state' => $value['state'],
'postal_code' => $value['postal_code']
]);
}
}

Then, in your model you'll be able to use both in a situation like this:
class User extends Model
{
protected $casts = [
'address' => Address::class,
'phone' => PhoneNumber::class
];
}

Custom casts provide a clean, reusable way to handle complex data transformations while keeping your models lean and maintainable.

The post Customizing Data Transformations with Laravel Casts appeared first on Laravel News.
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