We all know that Laravel 11 has been tremendously helping us all in every way for our highest-in-demand 2024 features of web apps for our customers. There is no doubt that it offers best solutions for common programming tasks, including string manipulation and many others. One such task that developers frequently encounter is converting strings to snake case. So we need to keep in mind that the Snake case is characterized by lowercase letters and underscores separating words, has become a standard naming convention in many programming contexts.
So let’s say, if you want to convert strings to snake case in Laravel any version, it is remarkably straightforward. The framework provides a built-in helper method called Str::snake() that handles this conversion effortlessly. This method is part of the Illuminate\Support\Str class, which is packed with numerous string manipulation utilities.
In order to use the snake case conversion in your Laravel web apps, you would first need to import the Str facade. Once imported, you can call the snake() method on any string you wish to convert. For instance, if you have been working with a string like “helloWorld” and you want to convert it to snake case, you would write:
use Illuminate\Support\Str;
$snakeCase = Str::snake(‘helloWorld’);
// Result: hello_world
The Str::snake() method is intelligent enough to handle various input formats. It can convert camel case, pascal case, and even strings with spaces to snake case. Consider the following examples:
$camelCase = Str::snake(‘userFirstName’);
// Result: user_first_name
$pascalCase = Str::snake(‘UserLastName’);
// Result: user_last_name
$withSpaces = Str::snake(‘Date of Birth’);
// Result: date_of_birth
So no matter you are a beginner or a pro, It is worth noting that Laravel’s snake case conversion is not limited to simple strings. You might encounter scenarios where you need to convert keys in an array to snake case. Laravel has got you covered in such situations as well. You could utilize the array_keys() function in combination with Str::snake() to achieve this:
$array = [‘firstName’ => ‘John’, ‘lastName’ => ‘Doe’];
$snakeCaseArray = array_combine(
array_map([Str::class, ‘snake’], array_keys($array)),
$array
);
Next we would break down this step:
(i) We start with an associative array $array that has camelCase keys:
$array = [‘firstName’ => ‘John’, ‘lastName’ => ‘Doe’];
(ii) We use the array_keys() function to get an array of just the keys:
array_keys($array)
// This returns [‘firstName’, ‘lastName’]
(iii) We then use array_map() to apply the Str::snake() method to each of these keys:
array_map([Str::class, ‘snake’], array_keys($array))
// This returns [‘first_name’, ‘last_name’]
(iv) Here, [Str::class, ‘snake’] is a callable array that refers to the static snake() method of the Str class.
We use array_combine() to create a new array. This function takes two arrays – one for keys and one for values:
array_combine(
[‘first_name’, ‘last_name’], // New keys in snake_case
[‘John’, ‘Doe’] // Original values
)
(v) The result is a new array with snake_case keys but the original values:
[‘first_name’ => ‘John’, ‘last_name’ => ‘Doe’]
This approach efficiently converts all keys in an array to snake_case without altering the values. It demonstrates how Laravel’s Str::snake() method can be combined with PHP’s built-in array functions to perform more complex operations.
The framework’s string manipulation capabilities extend far beyond snake case conversion, not just the camel case. Laravel offers a plethora of other string-related methods, such as Str::camel() for camel case conversion, Str::studly() for studly caps conversion, and Str::slug() for creating URL-friendly slugs. These methods work harmoniously, allowing developers to effortlessly transform strings between various conventions as needed. One might wonder about the performance implications of using these helper methods in large-scale applications. Taylor Otwell, the creator of Laravel, has addressed this concern. He has stated, “The performance impact of using Laravel’s string helpers is negligible in most real-world applications. The convenience and readability they provide far outweigh any microscopic performance differences.”
