Carbon: Create from string

[JonoB]

I'm probably missing something here, but how do you create a carbon date from a MySQL date (php equivalent 'y-m-d') or datetime ('y-m-d h:i:s') string?

Do we have to use createFromFormat or use strtotime and then createFromTimestamp?

[briannesbitt]

Yes, if you have a string date (ie from mysql) then you would use $instance = Carbon::createFromFormat('y-m-d', $val);. Remember the time portion defaults to now. If you want the time set to 00:00:00 you can add those to your format and $val or better yet call startOfDay() on your Carbon instance once created.

Ditto for a DateTime string, just use a different format string as you show.

If you had a DateTime instance you can create a Carbon instance with $carbon = Carbon::instance($dateTime);

[JonoB]

Thanks for the reply. In the end, I just did Carbon::createFromTimestamp(strtotime($val)).

[briannesbitt]

In that case, you can simply do $c = new \Carbon\Carbon($val);... you don't need the strtotime().

[atwright147]

Just to correct Brian's comment further up, the code to convert from MySQL's date format would be:
$instance = Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-m-d', $val);

Notice the capital Y in Y-m-d.

[alexmon]

Worked for me as @briannesbitt mentioned using startOfDay method after object instantiation

$carbonFromDate = Carbon::createFromFormat('Y-m-d', $fromDate)->startOfDay();

where $fromDate is a string