[kushkrg]

Summary

$user->updated_at = '2023-12-12 12:12:12';
$user->toRawArray(); // returned a Time instance for updated_at

When a date attribute is assigned at runtime, __set() mutates it to a Time instance before storing it, while the same attribute holds a plain string when the entity is populated from the database via injectRawData(). toRawArray() therefore returned different types for the same attribute depending on how the value got there.

Changes

• Entity::toRawArray() now normalizes Time instances held in $dates attributes back to their string representation, so the raw value is a string in both cases. The mutation-on-set behaviour itself is unchanged (existing tests assert the stored attribute is a Time instance), and retrieval through __get() still returns Time.
• Regression test testToRawArrayReturnsStringForAssignedDateAttribute.
• Changelog entry in docs/changelogs/v4.7.7.md.

Verified locally: EntityTest passes (139 tests, 333 assertions).

Fixes #8302

[carson-codeigniter4]

👋 Hi, @kushkrg!

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Ref: Syncing Your Branch

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