Laravel models sometimes convert Carbon objects and cannot use objects of type Carbon\Carbon as array errors

Question

I'm doing some string manipulation to do time zone conversions from an old codebase.

I need to put T between date and time, I am using the following logic to do this.

$check_in= $model->checkin_date_time; // 2022-12-12 22:22:22
$check_in[10] = 'T'; // 2022-12-12T22:22:22

For some strange reason I'm getting this error.

Cannot use object of type Carbon\Carbon as array

But this is not always the case. Only 1-2 errors per 2000 - 3000 requests.

I'm using Carbon elsewhere (even in other parts of the same function) but without any conversion of the $model property of the checkin_date_time

I'm not sure why $model->checkin_date_time is converted to a Carbon object.

Answer 1

$model->checkin_date_time is not "2022-12-12 22:22:22" It is a Carbon (subclass of DateTime) object. When you try to convert it to a string (using echo, any kind of display, or inject it into another string, it will automatically be formatted as Y-m-d h:i:s

If you want to output in other formats, please use ->format() method:

$check_in = $model->checkin_date_time->format('Y-m-d\Th:i:s');

Regardless, using offsets ($check_in[10] = syntax) to modify letters in a string is really a bad idea, and this micro-optimization is not worth it.