laravel 4 and 5 BaseModel.php

<?php namespace App;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class BaseModel extends Model
{
	/**
	 * @description
	 * @author info@turtlebytes.com
	 * @param        $name
	 * @param        $type
	 * @param string $default_value
	 * @return string
	 */
	public function format($name, $type = 'string', $default_value = '&nbsp;', $strict = false)
	{
		$formatted = $default_value;
		//if strict then if model value empty will use the default value.
		if (isset($this->$name))
		{
			if ($strict === true && !empty($this->$name))
			{
				$formatted = $this->$name;
			} elseif ($strict === false)
			{
				$formatted = $this->$name;
			}
		}
		switch ($type)
		{
			case "ucwords":
				$formatted = ucwords($formatted);
				break;
			case "ucfirst":
			case "ucFirstLetter":
				$formatted = ucfirst($formatted);
				break;
			case "phone":
				$cleaned = preg_replace('/[^[:digit:]]/', '', $formatted);
				$cleaned = ltrim($cleaned, '1');
				if (strlen($cleaned) < 9)
				{
					//no need to do anything. non standard phone number
				} else
				{
					preg_match('/(\d{3})(\d{3})(\d{4})(\d+)?/', $cleaned, $matches);
					$formatted = "({$matches[1]}) {$matches[2]}-{$matches[3]}";
					if (!empty($matches['4']))
					{
						$formatted .= " ext {$matches['4']}";
					}
				}
				break;
			case 'ssn':
				if (strlen($formatted) > 4)
				{
					$formatted = substr($formatted, -4);
				}
				break;
			case 'date':
				$formatted = $this->_date($formatted, 'M, d Y');
				break;
			case 'datetime':
				$formatted = $this->_date($formatted, 'M, d Y G:i:s');
				break;
			case "ago":
				$your_date = $this->_date($formatted, 'Y-m-d');
				$your_date = strtotime($your_date);
				$now = time(); // or your date as well
				$datediff = $now - $your_date;
				$formatted = floor($datediff/(60*60*24));
				break;
			default:
				if (preg_match('/maxchar:(\d+)/', $type, $max_matches))
				{
					list($found, $maxChars) = $max_matches;
					if (strlen($formatted) > $maxChars)
					{
						$formatted = substr($formatted, 1, $maxChars) . " . . . ";
					}
				}
		}
		return $formatted;
	}
	/**
	 * Returns the date of the blog post creation,
	 * on a good and more readable format :)
	 *
	 * @return string
	 */
	public function created_at()
	{
		return $this->_date($this->created_at);
	}
	/**
	 * Get the date the post was created.
	 *
	 * @param \Carbon|null $date
	 * @param string       $default
	 * @return string
	 */
	public function _date($date = null, $format = null, $default = 'Not a valid date')
	{
		if (is_null($date))
		{
			$date = $this->created_at;
		}
		if (preg_match('/((start|end)_?date)/', $date, $matches))
		{
			$date = $this->$matches[0];
		}
		$test = date('Y', strtotime($date . ""));
		if ($test < 1960)
		{
			return $default;
		}
		if (is_string($date))
		{
			$date = Carbon::instance(new \DateTime($date));
		}
		if(!is_null($format))
		{
			return $date->format($format);
		}
		return $date->toFormattedDateString();
	}
	/**
	 * Returns the date of the blog post last update,
	 * on a good and more readable format :)
	 *
	 * @return string
	 */
	public function updated_at()
	{
		return $this->_date($this->updated_at);
	}
	/**
	 * @description
	 * @author info@turtlebytes.com
	 * @return bool
	 */
	public function coalesce()
	{
		$args = func_get_args();
		for ($i = 0; $i < count($args); $i++)
		{
			if (isset($this->$args[$i]))
			{
				return $this->$args[$i];
			}
		}
		return false;
	}
}