Carbon dates created with different TZ are different as objects, but same as strings

[ngreimel]

Hello,

I encountered an issue with the following code:

$dateA = Carbon::parse('2025-01-01T00:00:00+01:00');
$dataB = Carbon::parse('2025-01-01T00:00:00+02:00');

echo $dateA == $dateB ? 'Same' : 'Different'; // 'Different'
echo strcmp($dateA, $dateB) === 0 ? 'Same' : 'Different'; // 'Same'

Carbon version: 3.8.4

PHP version: 8.2.22

I expected to get:

DifferentDifferent

But I actually get:

DifferentSame

Without changing the DEFAULT_TO_STRING_FORMAT, Carbon loses context of the TZ. This results in two different dates being considered different when compared as Carbon objects, but equal when comparing as strings.

Thanks!

[kylekatarnls]

Hi.

Yes, the default stringification does not include the timezone, so you should format them with timezone included if you want a string comparison including the timezone, not use the implicit cast.

Note that you can also change globally the default method used for implicit string, but it's better to just explicitly format at the place you need to convert date to string.

This is expected behavior.

Thanks