In Laravel Eloquent, accessors and mutators are special methods that allow you to transform attributes when retrieving them from or saving them into the database.
They provide a clean and centralized way to handle attribute formatting or transformations without repeating logic everywhere in your code.
🔹 Accessors
- Definition: Accessors are used to format / transform data when retrieving it from the database.
- Naming convention:
get{AttributeName}Attribute() - Usage: When you access a model property, Laravel will automatically call the accessor if it exists.
Example: Accessor
class User extends Model
{
// Accessor for full name
public function getFullNameAttribute()
{
return ucfirst($this->first_name) . ' ' . ucfirst($this->last_name);
}
}
Usage:
$user = User::find(1);
echo $user->full_name; // John Doe (formatted automatically)
🔹 Mutators
- Definition: Mutators are used to transform / format data before saving it into the database.
- Naming convention:
set{AttributeName}Attribute($value) - Usage: When you assign a value to a model property, Laravel will automatically call the mutator if it exists.
Example: Mutator
class User extends Model
{
// Mutator for password
public function setPasswordAttribute($value)
{
$this->attributes['password'] = bcrypt($value);
}
}
Usage:
$user = new User;
$user->password = 'secret123'; // Will be saved as a hashed value
$user->save();
🔹 Combined Example (Accessor + Mutator)
class Product extends Model
{
// Accessor: format price when retrieving
public function getPriceAttribute($value)
{
return number_format($value / 100, 2); // convert from cents to dollars
}
// Mutator: store price in cents
public function setPriceAttribute($value)
{
$this->attributes['price'] = $value * 100;
}
}
Usage:
$product = new Product;
// Mutator in action
$product->price = 99.99; // stored as 9999 in DB
// Accessor in action
echo $product->price; // shows 99.99
✅ Summary
- Accessors → modify data when retrieving (getters).
- Mutators → modify data before saving (setters).
- They help keep your model clean and DRY, handling attribute formatting in one place.