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Modern Eloquent Accessors and Mutators with Laravel’s Attribute Objects

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Introduction

Laravel has long supported model accessors and mutators via getXAttribute and setXAttribute methods. While powerful, they can get messy — especially in large models with many fields.

Starting in Laravel 9, you can now define cleaner and more expressive accessors/mutators using Attribute objects. This modern approach makes your models easier to read, test, and maintain — especially when paired with enum or value object casting.

In this post, we’ll walk through how Attribute objects work, show common real-world examples, and compare them to the legacy method.

What Is an Attribute Object in Laravel?

Laravel's Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Casts\Attribute class lets you define both an accessor and a mutator in a single method:

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Casts\Attribute;

public function name(): Attribute
{
    return Attribute::make(
        get: fn($value) => ucfirst($value),
        set: fn($value) => strtolower($value),
    );
}

This is equivalent to getNameAttribute() and setNameAttribute().

✅ Benefits

• Less boilerplate
• Method name is clean (name() instead of getNameAttribute())
• Clearly groups getter/setter logic
• Testable and expressive

Basic Example: Formatting a Name Field

Legacy Style

public function getNameAttribute($value)
{
    return ucfirst($value);
}

public function setNameAttribute($value)
{
    $this->attributes['name'] = strtolower($value);
}

With Attribute Object

public function name(): Attribute
{
    return Attribute::make(
        get: fn($value) => ucfirst($value),
        set: fn($value) => strtolower($value),
    );
}

Cleaner and encapsulated.

Advanced Example: Use with Enum or Value Object

You can combine Attribute objects with enum casting or DTO-style logic.

use App\Enums\UserStatus;

public function status(): Attribute
{
    return Attribute::make(
        get: fn($value) => UserStatus::from($value),
        set: fn(UserStatus $status) => $status->value,
    );
}

Now you can safely work with enum instances throughout your app:

$user->status = UserStatus::Active;
echo $user->status->value;

Mutating Input Before Save

public function email(): Attribute
{
    return Attribute::make(
        set: fn($value) => strtolower(trim($value)),
    );
}

This ensures consistent storage format with minimal effort.

Computed Attributes (Access Only)

Sometimes you only need a virtual field for output:

public function fullName(): Attribute
{
    return Attribute::make(
        get: fn() => $this->first_name . ' ' . $this->last_name,
    );
}

This full_name doesn’t exist in the DB — but you can use it like a real attribute:

echo $user->full_name;

Best Practices

• Use Attribute::make() to define simple, inline accessors/mutators
• Pair with type hints (e.g. UserStatus, int, bool) for safer domain logic
• Document virtual (computed) attributes in resource classes or API docs
• Avoid overcomplicating — logic-heavy casts may belong in custom Cast classes instead

Conclusion

Laravel’s Attribute object is the modern way to define clean, type-safe model accessors and mutators. Whether you're formatting a name, storing enums, or building computed values, this feature helps you write less code with more clarity.

Ditch those bulky getXAttribute/setXAttribute methods — and make your models more elegant today!