Laravel offers many global helper functions that make your code cleaner and easier to write. In this post, I’ll show you 10 helper functions I often use in real projects — they can help you write better and more readable code.

class_basename()

Get only the class name, without the namespace.

class_basename(App\Models\User::class); // 'User'

collect()

Create a collection from an array great for working with data.

collect([1, 2, 3])->map(fn($n) => $n * 2); // [2, 4, 6]

str() and Str::of()

Useful for working with strings in a fluent way.

Str::of('Laravel')->lower()->append(' rocks!'); // 'laravel rocks!'

throw_if() and throw_unless()

Throw an exception if a condition is true or false.

throw_if(!$user, new Exception('User not found'));

value()

Returns a value or runs a closure and returns the result.

$value = value(fn() => 'Generated dynamically');
// 'Generated dynamically'

retry()

Try something again a few times until it works or fails.

$response = retry(3, function () {
    return Http::get('https://api.example.com');
}, 100);

tap()

Run an action on a value and return the value.

$user = tap(User::find(1), function ($user) {
    $user->logAccess();
});

blank() and filled()

Check if a value is "empty" or "filled", more flexible than empty().

blank(''); // true
filled('Laravel'); // true

optional()

Avoids errors when working with null objects.

$user = null;
$name = optional($user)->name; // null, no error

data_get()

Safely get a value from a nested array or object.

$data = ['user' => ['name' => 'Ana']];
$name = data_get($data, 'user.name'); // 'Ana'

Conclusion

Laravel helpers are great tools for writing clean, expressive code. If you’re not using them yet, give them a try in your next project and feel the difference.