A collection of awesome helpful functions for Laravel

Installation

composer require calebporzio/awesome-helpers

Helpers

carbon

Shortcut for: new Carbon or Carbon::parse()

carbon('One year ago');

chain

Makes an ordinary object chainable.

chain(new SomeClass)
    ->firstMethod()
    ->secondMethod()
    ->thirdMethod();

// You can use the "carry" constant to pass the result of one method into the other:
chain(new Str)->singular('cars')->ucfirst(carry)();
// Returns "Car"
// Also, you can grab the result of the chain by trailing
// a "()" on the end of it. (Thanks to Taylor Otwell for these two additions)

connection

Run callback under a different database connection.

$tenantPostIds = connection('tenantdb', function () {
    return Post::pluck('id');
});

dump_sql

Returns sql query with bindings data.

dump_sql(\DB::table('users')->where('email', "blaBla")->where('id', 1));
// returns "select * from `users` where `email` = 'blaBla' and `id` = 1"

faker

Shortcut for: $faker = Faker\Factory::create()

faker()->address; // returns random, fake address
faker('address'); // alternate syntax

user

A shortcut for auth()->user()

user()->posts()->create([...]);

money

echo money(12); // echoes "$12.00"
echo money(12.75); // echoes "$12.75"
echo money(12.75, false); // echos "$13"
echo money(12.75, true, 'en_GB'); // echos "£12.75"
// Note: unless specified otherwise, money() will detect the current locale.

ok

Shortcut for response('', 204). When you don't have anything to return from an endpoint, but you want to return success.

return ok();

stopwatch

Returns the amount of time (in seconds) the provided callback took to execute. Useful for debugging and profiling.

stopwatch(function () {
    sleep(2);
}); // returns "2.0"

str_between

Returns string between second argument

str_between('--thing--', '--'); // returns "thing"
str_between('[thing]', '[', ']'); // returns "thing"

Str::between('--thing--', '--'); // returns "thing"
Str::between('[thing]', '[', ']'); // returns "thing"

str_extract

Returns capture groups contained in the provided regex pattern.

str_extract('Jan-01-2019', '/Jan-(.*)-2019/'); // returns "01"

Str::extract('Jan-01-2019', '/Jan-(.*)-2019/'); // returns "01"

str_match

Checks the provided string against the provided regex pattern.

str_match('Jan-01-2019', '/Jan-.*-2019/'); // returns true
str_match('foo bar baz', 'bar'); // returns true

Str::match('Jan-1-2019', '/Jan-(.*)-2019/'); // returns true

str_validate

A simple way to use validate a string using Laravel's built-in validation system.

str_validate('calebporzio@aol.com', 'regex:/\.net$/|email|max:10');
// returns: ["Format is invalid.", "May not be greater than 10 characters."]

Str::validate('calebporzio@aol.com', 'regex:/\.net$/|email|max:10');
// returns: ["Format is invalid.", "May not be greater than 10 characters."]

str_wrap

str_wrap('thing', '--'); // returns "--thing--"

Str::wrap('thing', '--'); // returns "--thing--"

swap

This function swaps the values of two variables.

$startDate = '2040-01-01';
$endDate = '2020-01-01';

if ($endDate < $startDate) {
    swap($startDate, $endDate);
}

echo $startDate; // prints "2020-01-01"
echo $endDate; // prints "2040-01-01"

tinker

Kind of like dd(), but will open an artisan tinker terminal session with the variables you passed in, so you can play around.

$somethingYouWantToDebug = new StdClass;
tinker($somethingYouWantToDebug);

Am I missing an awesome helper function?

Submit a PR or issue with helper functions you use or ideas you have for others!

TTFN, Caleb