Laravel Packages

Sanitize and Format Data in PHP with the Transformer Package

Published
Sanitize and Format Data in PHP with the Transformer Package image

Transformer is a PHP package for sanitizing and formatting data powered by Laravel's validation components. The package uses a familiar Laravel validation-like syntax to transform data using callable functions, classes, and more:

use Closure;

// example available functions at runtime:
function to_carbon($value)
{
    return new Carbon\Carbon($value);
}

function only_numbers($value)
{
    return preg_replace("/[^0-9]/",'',$value);
}

$input = [
  'first_name' => '    jim    ',
  'last_name' => '   thompson',
  'phone_number' => '123-456-7890',
  'date_of_birth' => "1991-05-01",
];

(new DataTransformer($input, [
    'first_name' => 'trim|ucfirst',
    'last_name' => 'trim|ucfirst',
    'phone_number' => 'only_numbers',
    'date_of_birth' => 'to_carbon|->format:m/d/y',
]))->transform();

// Returns:
// [
//     "first_name" => "Jim",
//     "last_name" => "Thompson",
//     "phone_number" => "1234567890",
//     "date_of_birth" => "05/01/91",
// ]

Those familiar with Laravel's validation API will notice the string-based transformer rules. Also, as seen in the snippet, this package has a "chainable" syntax (to_carbon|->format:m/d/y) that can chain additional calls on a piece of data.

You can also transform data using closures or a class implementing the provided Transformable interface. Additionally, this package supports nested array data using dot notation, wildcard inputs (apply functions on keys matching a wildcard pattern), and more.

You can learn more about this package, get full installation instructions, and view the source code on GitHub.

Paul Redmond photo

Staff writer at Laravel News. Full stack web developer and author.

Sponsored

serpapi logo
SerpApi

The Web Search API for Your LLM and AI Applications

Visit SerpApi

The latest

View all →
PhpStorm 2026.3 Adds an Agent Workspace and PHP 8.6 Support image

PhpStorm 2026.3 Adds an Agent Workspace and PHP 8.6 Support

Read article
Insert Middleware Before or After Existing Laravel Middleware image

Insert Middleware Before or After Existing Laravel Middleware

Read article
Laravel Herd 2: Coding Agents, Workspaces, and Cloud Deploys image

Laravel Herd 2: Coding Agents, Workspaces, and Cloud Deploys

Read article
Strict Request Input Casting in Laravel image

Strict Request Input Casting in Laravel

Read article
Prevent Duplicate File Uploads With Laravel Storage Dedupler image

Prevent Duplicate File Uploads With Laravel Storage Dedupler

Read article
Slow Job Alerts and Replica Commit IDs in Laravel 13.40 image

Slow Job Alerts and Replica Commit IDs in Laravel 13.40

Read article