# Mutators and Casting

• Defining an Accessor
  • How to casts a data to a boolean, and save as date if true or null if false?
• Trouble Shooting
  • Not mutating as expected

# Defining an Accessor

An accessor transforms an Eloquent attribute value when it is accessed.

Existing attributes can be transformed by defining a method in the model class that matches the attribute name in pascal case. For example, if you have an attribute first_name then the method name should be firstName().

protected function firstName(): Attribute
{
    return Attribute::make(
        get: fn (string $value) => ucfirst($value),
        set: fn (string $value) => ucfirst($value),
    );
}

# How to casts a data to a boolean, and save as date if true or null if false?

protected function activatedAt(): Attribute
{
    return Attribute::make(
        get: fn ($value) => $value ? true : false,
        set: fn ($value) => $value ? now() : null,
    );
}

The may be occasions where you want to display the actual date stored in the database, for this you can use the getOriginal() method.

public function getOriginalActivatedAt(){
    return $this->getOriginal('activated_at');
}

# Trouble Shooting

# Not mutating as expected

Make sure you have set the method name correctly in pascal case. For example, if you have an attribute published_at then the method name should be publishedAt().