Exclude Model Attributes Easily with Laravel's New except() Method

Need to get model attributes while excluding sensitive or unnecessary fields? Laravel's new Model::except() method complements the existing only() method by doing exactly the opposite.

When working with Eloquent models, you often need to retrieve a subset of model attributes, perhaps to pass to a view or return in an API response. Laravel has long provided the only() method to whitelist specific attributes, but sometimes it's more convenient to work from the other direction - keeping everything except a few attributes. The new except() method makes this simple and expressive.

Let's see how it works:

$attributes = $user->except('password', 'remember_token');
// Returns all attributes except password and remember_token

Real-World Example

The except() method is particularly useful when preparing models for display or serialization while excluding sensitive or unnecessary fields:

class UserController extends Controller
{
    public function show(User $user)
    {
        // Return all user data except sensitive fields
        return view('users.profile', [
            'userData' => $user->except('password', 'remember_token', 'two_factor_secret')
        ]);
    }
    
    public function apiProfile(Request $request)
    {
        $user = $request->user();
        
        // Return all user attributes except internal or sensitive ones
        return response()->json(
            $user->except('id', 'password', 'remember_token', 'email_verified_at', 'created_at', 'updated_at')
        );
    }
}

By leveraging the new except() method alongside the existing only() method, you now have a complete toolkit for retrieving exactly the model attributes you need in any situation.

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