From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2011-01-11T17:49:55+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby 1.9.2 Date issues

On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 1:45 AM, keldog <kellyrmoran@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all...
>
> Wondering if someone can help me out with a date issue.
>
> My environment:
> ruby: 1.9.2p0
> rails: 3.0.3
> mac os x
>
> My issue:
>
> From what I've been reading, the date format has been changed in
> 1.9.2.  So, saving dates in the "mm/dd/yyy" format has been an issue
> since 1.9.2 is saving as "dd/mm/yyyy"

What exactly do you mean by "saving"?  Both "mm/dd/yyy" and
"dd/mm/yyyy" are just textual representations of a Date.  If you want
to be sure what conversion is used you can use Date#strftime:

09:44:35 ~$ irb19 -r date
Ruby version 1.9.2
irb(main):001:0> d = Date.today
=> #<Date: 2011-01-11 (4911145/2,0,2299161)>
irb(main):002:0> d.to_s
=> "2011-01-11"
irb(main):003:0> d.strftime '%m/%d/%Y'
=> "01/11/2011"
irb(main):004:0> d.strftime '%d/%m/%Y'
=> "11/01/2011"
irb(main):005:0>

If you save via Marshal there should be no issues.  Note also that
there are some built in formats:

irb(main):012:0> d.rfc3339
=> "2011-01-11"
irb(main):013:0> d.rfc2822
=> "Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000"
irb(main):014:0> d.rfc822
=> "Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000"

> I have a jQuery plugin that uses the date picker and displays in the
> format of "mm/dd/yyyy"  However, sometimes the date saves and other
> times it doesn't because of ruby expecting the changed format (mm/dd/
> yyyy).  For example:
>
> 3/1/2011 saves as 1/3/2011
> 3/13/2011 doesn't save (returns "")

I would expect the date picker to return a Date and not a String.
What am I missing?

> I have the following code in my model to inspect the date (in my case,
> start_date of a course):
>
> [code]
>  before_filter :fix_dates
>
>  private
>
>  def fix_dates
>    raise self.start_date.to_s.inspect
>  end
> [/code]
>
> Tried the following:
> 1) In the /config/initializers directory, created a date_format.rb to
> change the date.  However, that's for display purposes only (I
> believe).
>
> 2) In the fix_dates function above, I added:
> self.start_date = Date.strptime(self.start_date.to_s,'%m/%d/%Y').to_s
> But this isn't valid since ruby will set the date to an empty string
> before executing this code.
>
> I think there is a really simple solution for this work around, but
> I've failed to find one thus far.  Any help is greatly appreciated!

Maybe you changed your environment and now a different default format
for your locale is chosen.

Kind regards

robert

-- 
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/