Customizing Eloquent Attributes with Mutators and Accessors

// In your App\Models\User model
namespace App\Models;

use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Casts\Attribute;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Hash;

class User extends Model
{
    /**
     * Get the user's first name.
     * Accessor and Mutator combined (Laravel 9+)
     */
    protected function firstName(): Attribute
    {
        return Attribute::make(
            get: fn (string $value) => ucfirst($value),
            set: fn (string $value) => strtolower($value),
        );
    }

    /**
     * Get the user's full name.
     * Accessor (Computed Property)
     */
    protected function fullName(): Attribute
    {
        return Attribute::make(
            get: fn () => $this->first_name . ' ' . $this->last_name,
        );
    }

    /**
     * Set the user's password.
     * Mutator (older syntax for clarity, but Attribute::make also works for set)
     */
    public function setPasswordAttribute(string $value)
    {
        $this->attributes['password'] = Hash::make($value);
    }
}

// Usage examples
$user = App\Models\User::find(1);

// Accessor: automatically capitalizes first name on retrieval
// e.g., if stored as "john", $user->first_name will return "John"
echo $user->first_name;

// Accessor: computed full name
// e.g., if first_name="John" and last_name="Doe", $user->full_name will return "John Doe"
echo $user->full_name;

// Mutator: automatically hashes password on assignment
$user->password = 'secret_password'; 
$user->save();