Laravel Macros: Extend Core Classes with Your Own Magic Methods

Introduction

Imagine you need to repeat a small logic across your Laravel project —like formatting phone numbers, cleaning strings, or sending standardized responses.

Sure, you could create a helper function or a service class.

But Laravel gives you something cleaner and framework-native — Macros. Macros let you extend built-in Laravel classes (like Str, Collection, Response, Request, etc.) with your own custom reusable methods.

Let’s see how to use them smartly in a real project.

What Are Laravel Macros?

A macro is simply a custom method you can “attach” to an existing Laravel class.

For example, you can make your own method like this:

Str::macro('maskEmail', function ($email) {

    $parts = explode('@', $email);

    return substr($parts[0], 0, 3) . '****@' . $parts[1];

});

echo Str::maskEmail('vivek@example.com');

// Output: viv****@example.com

Now you can use Str::maskEmail() anywhere — it behaves like a native Laravel helper.

Where to Register Macros

You can register your macros in the AppServiceProvider inside the boot() method, or even better, create a dedicated MacroServiceProvider.

namespace App\Providers;

use Illuminate\Support\ServiceProvider;

use Illuminate\Support\Str;

use Illuminate\Support\Collection;

class MacroServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider

{

    public function boot()

    {

        // Example 1: String Macro

        Str::macro('excerpt', function ($text, $limit = 100) {

            return strlen($text) > $limit ? substr($text, 0, $limit) . '...' : $text;

        });

        // Example 2: Collection Macro

        Collection::macro('toUpper', function () {

            return $this->map(fn($item) => strtoupper($item));

        });

    }

}

Real-World Use Cases

1. Custom JSON Response Macro

You can extend Laravel’s response builder for cleaner, standardized API responses:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Response;

Response::macro('success', function ($data = [], $message = 'Success', $status = 200) {

    return Response::json([

        'status' => true,

        'message' => $message,

        'data' => $data,

    ], $status);

});

Now in your controllers:

return response()->success($user, 'User fetched successfully!');

2.Request Macro: Sanitize Input

You can clean up inputs automatically before using them.

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

Request::macro('trimAll', function () {

    return collect($this->all())

        ->map(fn($value) => is_string($value) ? trim($value) : $value)

        ->toArray();

});

Usage in a controller:

$data = request()->trimAll();