laravel query builder select first

$someVariable = Input::get("some_variable");

$results = DB::select( DB::raw("SELECT * FROM some_table WHERE some_col = '$someVariable'") );

$user = DB::table('users')->where('name', 'John')->first();

var_dump($user->name);

$users = DB::table('users')
                ->whereDate('created_at', '2016-12-31')
                ->get();