Factory-generated Carbon Object with Mutators Returns Incorrect Attribute Value Until Model is Refreshed

[green-mike]

Laravel Version

11.15.0

PHP Version

8.3.1

Database Driver & Version

mysql Ver 8.0.35-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 for Linux on aarch64 ((Ubuntu))

Description

Issue Description

When using a factory to generate a Carbon object and using Mutators, the access attribute retrieves the Carbon object set by the factory instead of the new value set by the mutator. The value only updates correctly after a refresh from the database.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a model with a date attribute and define a mutator for this attribute.
2. Use a factory to generate an instance of this model and set the date attribute with a Carbon object.
3. Access the date attribute on the model instance.

Expected Behavior

The date attribute should return the value set by the mutator.

Actual Behavior

The date attribute returns the Carbon object set by the factory. The value only updates correctly after refreshing the model from the database.

Analysis

Upon investigation, it appears that the mutateAttributeMarkedAttribute function directly uses the value in the attributeCastCache, which retains the initial Carbon object set by the factory.

framework/src/Illuminate/Database/Eloquent/Concerns/HasAttributes.php

Lines 696 to 700 in 1225a2f

	protected function mutateAttributeMarkedAttribute($key, $value)
	{
	if (array_key_exists($key, $this->attributeCastCache)) {
	return $this->attributeCastCache[$key];
	}

Steps To Reproduce

repo: https://github.com/green-mike/laravel-issue

• Create a model with an end_at attribute and define a mutator to set end_at to 23:59:59 of the current day.
• Use a factory to generate an instance of this model and set the end_at attribute with a Carbon object.
• Access the end_at attribute on the model instance.

[DanteB918]

Hello Mike, I tried out your testing environment, it looks to me it's because your end_at is a string in the database, but a carbon object in the factory.

in your endAt method, you can switch the return (date('Y-m-d 23:59:59', strtotime($value)) ?? null); to return $value->endOfDay();

and you will see the carbon object modified correctly. I'd recommend adding protected $casts = ['end_at' => 'datetime']; as a property to your model so that it is always a carbon object when being retrieved from the database. Or, using now()->toDateString() in your factory and leaving your existing code as it is.