form model binding in laravel 5.2

Question

I have been reading about form model binding https://laravelcollective.com/docs/5.0/html#form-model-binding

It's very cool to populate DB values in html form. I tried like this and this works fantastic.

{{ Form::model($university,array('url' => admin_path('universities/edit'),'id' => 'add_university','name' =>'add_university','data-validate'=>"parsley")) }}
    {{ Form::label('university_name', 'University name',array('class'=>'control-label')) }}
    {{ Form::text('university_name')}}
{{Form::close()}}

But the problem is here, Cause i want to add more attributes in input like class SO i am using

{{ Form::label('university_name', 'University name',array('class'=>'control-label')) }}
{{ Form::text('university_name','',array('class' => 'form-control'))}}

If i leave blank value column then nothing populate in textbox and if i using like this

{{ Form::label('university_name', 'University name',array('class'=>'control-label')) }}
{{ Form::text('university_name',$university->university_name,array('class' => 'form-control'))}}

Then what is use of model binding. Please explain. Thanks

Answer 1

{{ Form::text('university_name','',array('class' => 'form-control'))}}

It should be:

{{ Form::text('university_name',null,array('class' => 'form-control'))}}

'' means the real string, not null.
thanks, mathielo, for helping me on grammar