Laravel Importing CSV throws error on rows with dates - laravel

Question

Import.php
...
return new Statement([
'account_number' => $row['accountno'],
'account_name' => $row['name'],
'reading_date' => \Carbon\Carbon::createFromFormat('m/d/Y', $row['billdate']),
'due_date' => \Carbon\Carbon::createFromFormat('m/d/Y', $row['duedate']),
]);
...
Error:
Illuminate\Database\QueryException PHP 8.1.6 9.37.0
SQLSTATE[22007]: Invalid datetime format: 1292 Incorrect date value: '10/18/2022' for column `mubsdb`.`statements`.`due_date` at row 1
INSERT INTO
`statements` (`due_date`, `reading_date`)
VALUES
( 10 / 18 / 2022, 10 / 03 / 2022),
(
10 / 18 / 2022,
10 / 03 / 2022
),
( 10 / 18 / 2022, 10 / 03 / 2022),
( 10 / 18 / 2022, 10 / 03 / 2022),
(10/18/2022, 10/03/2022), (10/18/2022, 10/03/2022), (10/18/2022, 10/03/2022),
DB Structure:
Name Type Null Default
reading_date date Yes NULL
due_date date Yes NULL
I'm trying to import and save csv rows to my DB but I get error with dates. I tried \Carbon\Carbon::createFromFormat('m/d/Y', $row['billdate']) and \Carbon\Carbon::parse($row['billdate'])->format('Y-m-d') but neither seems to work

Answer 1

weirdly, this worked.
'reading_date' => $row['billdate'] ? \Carbon\Carbon::createFromFormat('m/d/Y', $row['billdate'])->format('m/d/Y') : null,
'due_date' => $row['duedate'] ? \Carbon\Carbon::createFromFormat('m/d/Y', $row['duedate'])->format('m/d/Y') : null,

Answer 2

If you're using the newest version of laravel-excel, then you'll notice at this page a date column is exported using Date::dateTimeToExcel:
// ...
Date::dateTimeToExcel($invoice->created_at),
// ...
That is because date is stored as numbers in excel, thus a datetime object needs to be converted first in order to show the value correctly.
This rule also exists in import. So personally I would add a rule in the import class to make sure that the date we're receiving is a number (which actually a date format in excel):
use Maatwebsite\Excel\Concerns\WithValidation;
class MyImport implements WithValidation
{
public function rules(): array
{
return [
'created_at' => ['numeric'],
];
}
}
And then, when about to importing the data using model, convert the number to datetime before modifying it with Carbon:
use PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Shared\Date;
// ...
return new Import([
// ...
'created_at' => Carbon::instance(Date::excelToDateTimeObject($row['created_at'])),
// or any other Carbon methods
// ...
]);