Laravel Carbon, How to format to compare datetime?

Question

I am working on a booking app, I get a start and end (datetime) from a user and check if this period (start & end) intersect with the database columns (start & end) so I need to compare Input['start'] and Input['end'] with the database, so I used Carbon::create($inputstart)->between($start ,$end)); but it alwayes gives errores "Unexpected data" & "Trailing data"

Here is the controller method to check and store the input

public function store(Request $request,$yard,$court)
{
    $start =$request->input("start");
    $end =$request->input("end");
    $courtCalendar = CalendarEvent::where('court_id',$court)->get();
    $start= Carbon::parse( $start);
    $end = Carbon::parse($end);
    foreach ($courtCalendar as $booked) {    
       $bend= Carbon::parse($booked->end);  
       $bstart= Carbon::parse($booked->start);
       dd(Carbon::create($end)->between($bstart ,$bend));
        if (!Carbon::create($start)->between($bstart ,$bend)){
            if (!Carbon::create($end)->between($bstart ,$bend)) {
    $calendar_event = new CalendarEvent();
    $calendar_event->user_id          = Auth::user()->id;   
    $calendar_event->court_id         = $court; 
    $calendar_event->title            = $request->input("title");
    $calendar_event->start            = $start;
    $calendar_event->end              = $end;
    $calendar_event->status           = 0;
    $calendar_event->save();
    return redirect()->back()
    ->with(['header'=>'Success!','class' =>'alert alert-success','message'=> 'booked successfully.',
        'calendar'=>$calendar_event]);
            }else
            {return redirect()->back()
                ->with(['header'=>'Warning!','class' =>'alert alert-warning','message'=> 'cannot book at this time end time is occupied']);}
        }else
            {return redirect()->back()
                ->with(['header'=>'Warning!','class' =>'alert alert-warning','message'=> 'cannot book at this time start time is occupied']);}
    }
}

I also declared the database columns in the model as dates

protected $dates = ['start', 'end'];

How can I pass datetime format from HTML form and database "datetime" so Carbon can do the "between" comparison ?

Answer 1

It looks like you already have created your Carbon instance for the $end variable with the line

$end = Carbon::parse($end);

So, if you are wanting to determine if $end is between $bstart and $bend, then you would want your line to look like this

$end->between($bstart, $bend);

If this doesn't work, dd($end) along with dd($bstart) and dd($bend) to make sure they are all Carbon objects.