Carbon date not being set

ok, go with me on this for a moment. What happens in response to $med1->date_prescription_last_filled; ?

Hi Snapey,

Thanks for replying. That returns null I'm afraid but I have discovered that all the properties are null and the only way to get them is to use getAttribute on whichever field I want.

This is how I am doing the test that lead to the problem.

<?php

use Illuminate\Foundation\Testing\DatabaseTransactions;

class MedicationTest extends TestCase
{
    use DatabaseTransactions;

    public function setUp()
    {
        parent::setUp();
        factory('MPC\Models\User')->create();
    }


    public function test_we_get_days_of_prescription_remaining()
    {
        \MPC\Models\Medication::create([
            'user_id' => 1,
            'howManyTakenPerTime' => 2,
            'timesTakenPerTimePeriod' => 4,
            'timePeriodTakenOver' => 'day',
            'unitsPerPrescription' => 200,
            'datePrescriptionLastFilled' => '2015-01-01 00:00:00',
            'name' => 'tramadol hydrochloride',
            'preferredName' => 'Tramadol'
        ]);

        dd(\MPC\Models\Medication::first());
    }
    
}

and this is the output for dd()

PHPUnit 4.8.12 by Sebastian Bergmann and contributors.

.MPC\Models\Medication {#178
  +howManyTakenPerTime: null
  +timesTakenPerTimePeriod: null
  +timePeriodTakenOver: null
  +unitsPerPrescription: null
  +datePrescriptionLastFilled: null
  #table: "medication"
  #fillable: array:13 [
    0 => "user_id"
    1 => "name"
    2 => "RXCUI"
    3 => "preferredName"
    4 => "sizeOfEachUnit"
    5 => "unitOfMeasurement"
    6 => "howManyTakenPerTime"
    7 => "timesTakenPerTimePeriod"
    8 => "timePeriodTakenOver"
    9 => "unitsPerPrescription"
    10 => "datePrescriptionLastFilled"
    11 => "reminder"
    12 => "remarks"
  ]
  #dates: array:3 [
    0 => "created_at"
    1 => "updated_at"
    2 => "datePrescriptionLastFilled"
  ]
  #connection: null
  #primaryKey: "id"
  #perPage: 15
  +incrementing: true
  +timestamps: true
  #attributes: array:16 [
    "id" => 1
    "user_id" => 1
    "name" => "tramadol hydrochloride"
    "RXCUI" => null
    "preferredName" => "Tramadol"
    "sizeOfEachUnit" => null
    "unitOfMeasurement" => null
    "howManyTakenPerTime" => 2
    "timesTakenPerTimePeriod" => 4
    "timePeriodTakenOver" => "day"
    "unitsPerPrescription" => 200
    "datePrescriptionLastFilled" => "2015-01-01 00:00:00"
    "reminder" => null
    "remarks" => ""
    "created_at" => "2015-10-14 23:48:02"
    "updated_at" => "2015-10-14 23:48:02"
  ]
  #original: array:16 [
    "id" => 1
    "user_id" => 1
    "name" => "tramadol hydrochloride"
    "RXCUI" => null
    "preferredName" => "Tramadol"
    "sizeOfEachUnit" => null
    "unitOfMeasurement" => null
    "howManyTakenPerTime" => 2
    "timesTakenPerTimePeriod" => 4
    "timePeriodTakenOver" => "day"
    "unitsPerPrescription" => 200
    "datePrescriptionLastFilled" => "2015-01-01 00:00:00"
    "reminder" => null
    "remarks" => ""
    "created_at" => "2015-10-14 23:48:02"
    "updated_at" => "2015-10-14 23:48:02"
  ]
  #relations: []
  #hidden: []
  #visible: []
  #appends: []
  #guarded: array:1 [
    0 => "*"
  ]
  #dateFormat: null
  #casts: []
  #touches: []
  #observables: []
  #with: []
  #morphClass: null
  +exists: true
  +wasRecentlyCreated: false
}

OK: this is just weird. When I alter the test method body to

        \MPC\Models\Medication::create([
            'user_id' => 1,                                        // 1
            'howManyTakenPerTime' => 2,                            // null
            'timesTakenPerTimePeriod' => 4,                        // null
            'timePeriodTakenOver' => 'day',                        // null
            'unitsPerPrescription' => 200,                         // null
            'datePrescriptionLastFilled' => '2015-01-01 00:00:00', // null
            'name' => 'tramadol hydrochloride',                    // tramadol hydrochloride
            'preferredName' => 'Tramadol'                          // Tramadol
        ]);
        dd(\MPC\Models\Medication::first()->preferredName);

I change the field in the dd() call one at a time and I have logged the output in a comment after the field (above). AS you can see there was only user_id, name and preferredName that gave the correct answer EVERY field returned the correct information when wrapped in getAttribute('')

I have just returned to the code and thanks to the below code I have discovered that the only way to set the attributes is with setAttribute();

    public function test_we_get_days_of_prescription_remaining()
    {
        $newMed = \MPC\Models\Medication::create([
            'user_id' => 1,                                        // 1
            'howManyTakenPerTime' => 2,                            // null
            'timesTakenPerTimePeriod' => 4,                        // null
            'timePeriodTakenOver' => 'day',                        // null
            'unitsPerPrescription' => 200,                         // null
            'datePrescriptionLastFilled' => '2015-01-01 00:00:00', // null
            'name' => 'tramadol hydrochloride',                    // tramadol hydrochloride
            'preferredName' => 'Tramadol'                          // Tramadol
        ]);
        $this->assertInstanceOf(\Carbon\Carbon::class, $newMed->getAttribute('datePrescriptionLastFilled'));
        $this->assertSame(25, $newMed->getLengthOfPrescriptionInDays());

    /**
     * Fails
     *
     * $newMed->timePeriodTakenOver = 'hour';
     * $newMed->save();
         */

    /**
     * Passes
     */
    $newMed->setAttribute('timePeriodTakenOver', 'hour');
        $newMed->save();

        $this->assertSame((25/24), $newMed->getLengthOfPrescriptionInDays());
    }

Ok. I've solved this one. The problem was not only with the date attribute but every attribute of the model. The problem was that I declared the properties in the model. Without going through the source code I am not sure why but I noticed that some of the properties (the original ones) were not there but the newest ones worked as expected.