From: Eric Hodel <drbrain@...7.net>
Date: 2007-02-03T03:21:20+09:00
Subject: Re: What's up with Time.local ?

On Feb 2, 2007, at 09:58, Peter Bailey wrote:
> I need to check some file dates against the budgetary periods of our
> company, to determine where those files get placed. I'm playing  
> with the
> Time.local object. I've proven that I can denote which budget  
> period I'm
> in by using the .between? method. But, I get this weird "octal digit"
> error with some of my date entries.
>
> irb(main):001:0> t = Time.local(2007,09,09,00,00)
> SyntaxError: compile error
> (irb):1: Illegal octal digit
> t = Time.local(2007,09,09,00,00)
>                       ^
> (irb):1: Illegal octal digit
> t = Time.local(2007,09,09,00,00)
>                          ^
>
> I don't get the error when I specify the following date. It doesn't  
> seem
> to like the month of September. (-;

If you put a 0 in front of a number you are specifying an octal  
number instead of a decimal number.  Octal is base 8, so there is no  
such thing as an octal number including a digit greater than 7:

t = Time.local 2007, 011, 011, 00, 00

Instead just use base 10:

Time.local 2007, 9, 9, 0, 0