Conventions & Style

Follow Laravel Naming Conventions

What	Convention	Good	Bad
Controller	singular	`ArticleController`	`ArticlesController`
Model	singular	`User`	`Users`
Table	plural, snake_case	`article_comments`	`articleComments`
Pivot table	singular alphabetical	`article_user`	`user_article`
Column	snake_case, no model name	`meta_title`	`article_meta_title`
Foreign key	singular model + `_id`	`article_id`	`articles_id`
Route	plural	`articles/1`	`article/1`
Route name	snake_case with dots	`users.show_active`	`users.show-active`
Method	camelCase	`getAll`	`get_all`
Variable	camelCase	`$articlesWithAuthor`	`$articles_with_author`
Collection	descriptive, plural	`$activeUsers`	`$data`
Object	descriptive, singular	`$activeUser`	`$users`
View	kebab-case	`show-filtered.blade.php`	`showFiltered.blade.php`
Config	snake_case	`google_calendar.php`	`googleCalendar.php`
Enum	singular	`UserType`	`UserTypes`

Prefer Shorter Readable Syntax

Verbose	Shorter
`Session::get('cart')`	`session('cart')`
`$request->session()->get('cart')`	`session('cart')`
`$request->input('name')`	`$request->name`
`return Redirect::back()`	`return back()`
`Carbon::now()`	`now()`
`App::make('Class')`	`app('Class')`
`->where('column', '=', 1)`	`->where('column', 1)`
`->orderBy('created_at', 'desc')`	`->latest()`
`->orderBy('created_at', 'asc')`	`->oldest()`
`->first()->name`	`->value('name')`

Use Laravel String & Array Helpers

Laravel provides Str, Arr, Number, and Uri helper classes that are more readable, chainable, and UTF-8 safe than raw PHP functions. Always prefer them.

Strings — use Str and fluent Str::of() over raw PHP:

// Incorrect
$slug = strtolower(str_replace(' ', '-', $title));
$short = substr($text, 0, 100) . '...';
$class = substr(strrchr('App\Models\User', '\'), 1);

// Correct
$slug = Str::slug($title);
$short = Str::limit($text, 100);
$class = class_basename('App\Models\User');

Fluent strings — chain operations for complex transformations:

// Incorrect
$result = strtolower(trim(str_replace('_', '-', $input)));

// Correct
$result = Str::of($input)->trim()->replace('_', '-')->lower();

Key Str methods to prefer: Str::slug(), Str::limit(), Str::contains(), Str::before(), Str::after(), Str::between(), Str::camel(), Str::snake(), Str::kebab(), Str::headline(), Str::squish(), Str::mask(), Str::uuid(), Str::ulid(), Str::random(), Str::is().

Arrays — use Arr over raw PHP:

// Incorrect
$name = isset($array['user']['name']) ? $array['user']['name'] : 'default';

// Correct
$name = Arr::get($array, 'user.name', 'default');

Key Arr methods: Arr::get(), Arr::has(), Arr::only(), Arr::except(), Arr::first(), Arr::flatten(), Arr::pluck(), Arr::where(), Arr::wrap().

Numbers — use Number for display formatting:

Number::format(1000000);          // "1,000,000"
Number::currency(1500, 'USD');    // "$1,500.00"
Number::abbreviate(1000000);      // "1M"
Number::fileSize(1024 * 1024);    // "1 MB"
Number::percentage(75.5);         // "75.5%"

URIs — use Uri for URL manipulation:

$uri = Uri::of('https://example.com/search')
    ->withQuery(['q' => 'laravel', 'page' => 1]);

Use $request->string('name') to get a fluent Stringable directly from request input for immediate chaining.

Use search-docs for the full list of available methods — these helpers are extensive.

No Inline JS/CSS in Blade

Do not put JS or CSS in Blade templates. Do not put HTML in PHP classes.

Incorrect:

let article = `{{ json_encode($article) }}`;

Correct:

<button class="js-fav-article" data-article='@json($article)'>{{ $article->name }}</button>

Pass data to JS via data attributes or use a dedicated PHP-to-JS package.

No Unnecessary Comments

Code should be readable on its own. Use descriptive method and variable names instead of comments. The only exception is config files, where descriptive comments are expected.