Helpers to work with date in Laravel

helpers.php

<?php

function carbon($dateTime = null)
{
    if (is_null($dateTime)) {
        return \Carbon\Carbon::now();
    }

    if (is_numeric($dateTime)) { // timestamp is passed:
        return \Carbon\Carbon::createFromTimestamp($dateTime);
    }

    if (is_object($dateTime)) { // DateTime or Carbon (probably) is passed
        return \Carbon\Carbon::instance($dateTime);
    }

    return\Carbon\Carbon::parse($dateTime); // ok, consider it's a string to parse
}

function date_or_text($expression, $defaultText = '-', $format = 'd.m.Y')
{
    if ($expression === 0 || $expression === '' || is_null($expression)) {
        return $defaultText;
    }

    $date = carbon($expression);

    return (int)$date->format('Y') > 1970 ? $date->format($format) : $defaultText;
}