Really quick question - How do I convert a string to a date

[Glenn Smith]

I need a 'Date' object which is converted from a string value
containing something like '13/04/2005' (english format date).

Help!

 

[Guillaume Cottenceau]

I need a 'Date' object which is converted from a string value
containing something like '13/04/2005' (english format date).

Pleac?

http://pleac.sourceforge.net/pleac_ruby/datesandtimes.html#AEN153

But there sure miss some more/better information there.

 

[James Edward Gray II]

I need a 'Date' object which is converted from a string value
containing something like '13/04/2005' (english format date).

Help!

This isn't a particularly brilliant answer, so hopefully someone will
do better:

ruby -r date -e 'puts Date.parse("13/04/2005".split("/").values_at(1,
0, 2).join("/"))'

Hope that helps.

James Edward Gray II

 

[WATANABE Hirofumi]

Hi,

I need a 'Date' object which is converted from a string value
containing something like '13/04/2005' (english format date).

% ruby -rdate -e 'puts Date.strptime("13/04/2005", "%d/%m/%Y")'
2005-04-13

 

[Farrel Lifson]

ParseDate? It's in Ruby's Std Lib -
http://www.rubycentral.com/book/lib_standard.html#ParseDate.parsedate

Farrel

 

[James Edward Gray II]

Hi,



% ruby -rdate -e 'puts Date.strptime("13/04/2005", "%d/%m/%Y")'
2005-04-13

I knew there had to be a clever solution. Nice!

James Edward Gray II

 

[Neil Stevens]

I need a 'Date' object which is converted from a string value
containing something like '13/04/2005' (english format date).

Help!

If you're certain it's that date format:

require 'date'
parts = '13/04/2005'.split('/').reverse
parts = parts.collect do |i|
i = i.to_i
end
date = Date.new(*parts)

 

[Glenn Smith]

Thanks guys - I'm getting jumpy about my demo tomorrow!
G

 

[Neil Stevens]

ParseDate? It's in Ruby's Std Lib -
http://www.rubycentral.com/book/lib_standard.html#ParseDate.parsedate

Nope, that assumes month/day/year when it sees that style. It can only
support one or the other thanks to cases like '1/2/2005'.

 

[Glenn Smith]

It was exactly this problem I was having Neil (ie. using ParseDate on
'13/04'2005' gave me an error - I think it didn't like there being 13
months!)