From: Daniel Liebig <daniel.liebig@...>
Date: 2007-01-23T06:25:10+09:00
Subject: find monday of first week of the month

Hi,

im pretty new to Ruby and i tried to find out how to calculate the date 
for the first monday of the first week of the month (i.e. this would be 
2007-01-29 for Feb. 2007)
My approach is to get the weekday of the first day of the month and 
calculate back from there. By getting the weekday i can tell how far to 
calculate back (if necessary at all). If i'm calcualating back from 
janurary, i also have to switch back the year.

So this is what i came out with:

     year = 2007
     month = 2

     # get the weekday of the first day of the month
     first_wd = Date.new(year, month, 1).wday

     # if weekday is sunday
     if first_wd == 0
       date_modifier = - 6

     #if weekday is monday
     elsif first_wd == 1
       date_modifier = 1

     # any other day
     else
       date_modifier = - ( first_wd - 1 )
     end

     #if i have to count back, swith month (and year) back
     if date_modifier < 0
       if month > 1
         month -= 1
       else
         month = 12
         year -= 1
       end
     end

     # get date with calculated modifier
     date_start = Date.new(year, month, date_modifier )

Ok, this works, but it seems pretty complicated to me. Is there a 
smarter (and more readable) way to do this? As far as i know Ruby right 
now, it's pretty unusual if an "easy" problem like this needs more than 
three lines of code ;).

Thx for any help
Regards
Daniel