Retrive all rows from last month (Laravel + Eloquent)
Stefan Bogdanescu
Founder & Senior Architect · 2026-06-29
# Retrieve All Rows from Last Month (Laravel + Eloquent)
Dealing with date ranges is one of the most common tasks in application development, whether you are calculating monthly reports, processing billing cycles, or analyzing historical data. When working with Laravel and Eloquent, handling these boundaries correctly requires a solid understanding of PHP's `DateTime` objects, which Laravel abstracts beautifully through the powerful Carbon library.
If you are trying to retrieve all records belonging *only* to the previous calendar month, simply subtracting months from the current date can often lead to off-by-one errors or incorrect boundary conditions. Let’s dive into the most robust and idiomatic ways to achieve this using Eloquent queries.
## Why Simple Subtraction Can Be Tricky
The approach you hinted at—using basic subtraction with Carbon (`Carbon::today() - 1` month)—is intuitive, but it can be fragile. For example, if today is March 31st, subtracting one month might result in February 28th or 29th, depending on the year and the specific date rules, which doesn't strictly define the *entire* previous month when dealing with start/end dates.
The goal isn't just finding a date range; it’s defining the precise start of the previous month and the precise end of the previous month.
## Method 1: The Eloquent `whereBetween` Approach (Recommended)
The cleanest and most database-efficient way to handle date ranges in Laravel is by using the `whereBetween` method. This allows you to define an inclusive start date and an exclusive end date, ensuring you capture every record within that specific boundary.
To get the data for the *last* complete month:
1. **Determine the boundaries:** Calculate the first day of the previous month and the first day of the current month.
2. **Apply the query:** Use these calculated dates in your Eloquent query.
Here is how you implement this within a repository or controller method, assuming you are querying a `Callback` model:
```php
use Carbon\Carbon;
use App\Models\Callback;
class CallbackService
{
public function getLastMonthData()
{
// 1. Define the boundaries for the previous month
$startDate = Carbon::now()->startOfMonth()->subMonth(); // Start of the previous month (e.g., March 1st)
$endDate = Carbon::now()->startOfMonth(); // Start of the current month (e.g., April 1st)
// 2. Use whereBetween to select records within this range
$results = Callback::whereBetween('created_at', [$startDate, $endDate])
->get();
return $results;
}
}
```
This method is superior because it delegates the date comparison directly to the database (using efficient index lookups), rather than fetching potentially millions of records and filtering them in PHP memory. This principle aligns perfectly with the performance focus seen across the Laravel ecosystem, including best practices discussed on [laravelcompany.com](https://laravelcompany.com).
## Method 2: Explicit Date Manipulation for Complex Scenarios
If you need to calculate the start and end dates dynamically without relying solely on simple subtraction, explicit manipulation using Carbon methods provides greater control. You can pinpoint the exact boundaries:
```php
$lastMonth = Carbon::now()->subMonth(); // This gives you the first day of the previous month
$startOfLastMonth = $lastMonth->startOfMonth();
// The end date is simply the start of the current month
$endOfLastMonth = $startOfLastMonth->copy()->addMonth()->subDay();
// A simpler, often safer way for end-of-month queries: use the first day of the *next* month.
```
By using `where('created_at', '>=', $startOfLastMonth->toDateString() . '`) and `where('created_at', '<', $endOfLastMonth->toDateString())`, you ensure that regardless of the specific date (e.g., handling month-end scenarios), your query accurately captures all records for that precise 30 or 31-day window.
## Conclusion
For robust date querying in Laravel, always favor methods that leverage Carbon's power to define exact boundaries. While simple arithmetic works for many cases, using `whereBetween` combined with carefully calculated start and end dates ensures your queries are both accurate and highly performant. Mastering these date operations is a fundamental skill for any senior developer working with the Eloquent ORM and Laravel.