Object of class Faker\UniqueGenerator could not be converted to string - laravel-9

Question

I am using laravel 9. I am trying to generate some fake users to boost my db using factoreis and seeders.
When i try to seed my db i get this error
Object of class Faker\UniqueGenerator could not be converted to string
at D:\PROJECTS\LARAVEL\todo-list\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Connection.php:665
661▕ $value,
662▕ match (true) {
663▕ is_int($value) => PDO::PARAM_INT,
664▕ is_resource($value) => PDO::PARAM_LOB,
➜ 665▕ default => PDO::PARAM_STR
666▕ },
667▕ );
668▕ }
669▕ }
1 D:\PROJECTS\LARAVEL\todo-list\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Connection.php:665
PDOStatement::bindValue(Object(Faker\UniqueGenerator))
2 D:\PROJECTS\LARAVEL\todo-list\vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Database\Connection.php:540
Illuminate\Database\Connection::bindValues(Object(PDOStatement))
this my UserFactory
class UserFactory extends Factory
{
/**
* Define the model's default state.
*
* #return array<string, mixed>
*/
public function definition()
{
return [
'name' => fake()->name(),
'username' => fake()->unique(),
'company' => fake()->sentence(),
'position' => fake()->sentence(),
'bio' => fake()->realText($maxNbChars = 100),
'picture' => fake()->imageUrl(90, 90),
'email' => fake()->unique()->safeEmail(),
'email_verified_at' => now(),
'password' => Hash::make('password'), // password
'remember_token' => Str::random(10),
];
}
/**
* Indicate that the model's email address should be unverified.
*
* #return static
*/
public function unverified()
{
return $this->state(fn (array $attributes) => [
'email_verified_at' => null,
]);
}
}
After looking arround for a while I found that fake()->unique() does not return a string. So I tried to convert it to string but It also gives me a error saying Unknown format "toString" in Faker\Generator.php:731

Answer 1

[Problem solved]
I just had to edit my UserFactory username to this
'username' => fake()->unique()->text(16),