Laravel db：seed总是产生错误“类DateTime的对象无法转换为字符串”

Question

Laravel 4.1 seems to drop the Exception "Object of class DateTime could not be converted to string" every time there is something wrong with a db seed.

For instance, suppose I run this seeder:

use Faker\Factory as Faker;

class OrdersTableSeeder extends Seeder {

    public function run()
    {
        $f = Faker::create();

        foreach(range(1, 10) as $index)
        {
            $c = Customer::leftJoin('orders', function($join) {
                  $join->on('customers.id', '=', 'orders.customer_id');
                })
                ->whereNull('orders.customer_id')
                ->first();

            if (!empty($c)) {
                Order::create([
                    'amazon_order_id'   => rand(100, 999) . '-' . rand(1000000, 9999999) . '-' . rand(1000000, 9999999),
                    'customer_id'       => $c->id,
                    'total'             => rand(10, 100) . '.' . rand(1, 99),
                    'subtotal'          => rand(10, 100) . '.' . rand(1, 99),
                    'first_name'        => $c->first_name,
                    'last_name'         => $c->last_name,
                    'address1'          => $c->address1,
                    'address2'          => $c->address2,
                    'address3'          => $c->address3,
                    'city'              => $c->city,
                    'state'             => $c->state,
                    'county'            => $c->county,
                    'district'          => $c->district,
                    'postal_code'       => $c->postalcode,
                    'country'           => $c->country,
                    'ship_level'        => array_rand(['Standard', 'Second', 'Next'], 1),
                    'status'            => array_rand(['Shipped', 'Unshipped', 'Pending'], 1),
                    'order_date'        => $f->dateTime,
                    'notes'             => array_rand(['', $f->text(128)], 1)
                ]);
            }
        }
    }

}

This seeder has the following migration up() function:

public function up()
    {
        Schema::create('orders', function(Blueprint $table)
        {
            $table->increments('id');
            $table->string('amazon_order_id', 19)->unique();
            $table->unsignedInteger('customer_id')->references('id')->on('customers');
            $table->decimal('total', 8, 2)->index();
            $table->decimal('subtotal', 8, 2);
            $table->string('first_name')->index();
            $table->string('last_name')->index();
            $table->string('address1');
            $table->string('address2');
            $table->string('address3');
            $table->string('city');
            $table->string('state');
            $table->string('county');
            $table->string('district');
            $table->string('postal_code');
            $table->string('country', 2);
            $table->string('ship_level');
            $table->string('status')->index();
            $table->dateTime('order_date')->index();
            $table->text('notes');
            $table->timestamps();
        });
    }

Here is the output from php artisan db:seed -vvv:

Exception trace:
 () at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Support\helpers.php:975
 Illuminate\Exception\Handler->handleError() at n/a:n/a
 preg_replace() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Support\helpers.php:975
 str_replace_array() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\QueryException.php:53
 Illuminate\Database\QueryException->formatMessage() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\QueryException.php:35
 Illuminate\Database\QueryException->__construct() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Connection.php:555
 Illuminate\Database\Connection->run() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Connection.php:338
 Illuminate\Database\Connection->statement() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Connection.php:295
 Illuminate\Database\Connection->insert() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Query\Processors\Processor.php:30
 Illuminate\Database\Query\Processors\Processor->processInsertGetId() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Query\Builder.php:1724
 Illuminate\Database\Query\Builder->insertGetId() at n/a:n/a
 call_user_func_array() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder.php:919
 Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder->__call() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model.php:1502
 Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Builder->insertGetId() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model.php:1502
 Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model->insertAndSetId() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model.php:1472
 Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model->performInsert() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model.php:1383
 Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model->save() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model.php:459
 Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model::create() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\app\database\seeds\OrdersTableSeeder.php:41
 OrdersTableSeeder->run() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Seeder.php:37
 Illuminate\Database\Seeder->call() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\app\database\seeds\DatabaseSeeder.php:25
 DatabaseSeeder->run() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Console\SeedCommand.php:52
 Illuminate\Database\Console\SeedCommand->fire() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Console\Command.php:108
 Illuminate\Console\Command->execute() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\symfony\console\Symfony\Component\Console\Command\Command.php:241
 Symfony\Component\Console\Command\Command->run() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Console\Command.php:96
 Illuminate\Console\Command->run() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\symfony\console\Symfony\Component\Console\Application.php:892
 Symfony\Component\Console\Application->doRunCommand() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\symfony\console\Symfony\Component\Console\Application.php:191
 Symfony\Component\Console\Application->doRun() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\vendor\symfony\console\Symfony\Component\Console\Application.php:121
 Symfony\Component\Console\Application->run() at C:\Ampps\www\mysite.dev\artisan:59

What could be going on here? I can't find anything immediately wrong with it considering I'm not even explicitly adding a DateTime object...other than Faker's dateTime for 'order_date', but that shouldn't be a problem.

Please note, the customers table is already created and seeded 1 step ahead of this one.

Is this a Laravel 4.1 bug?

Answer 1

MySQL DATETIME column type expects String. Faker is returning PHP DateTime object instead.

Format your DateTime object from Faker to return String:

Order::create([
    // Omitted fields above

    'order_date' => $f->dateTime->format('Y-m-d H:i:s'),

    // Omitted fields below
]);