Custom Date Formats in Rails

0. Custom Date Formats in Rails.md

Custom Date Formats in Rails

Quick guide on printing pretty dates in Rails

1_built_in_formats_demo.rb

time = Time.now                     # => Thu Jan 18 06:10:17 CST 2007

time.to_formatted_s(:time)          # => "06:10"
time.to_s(:time)                    # => "06:10"

time.to_formatted_s(:db)            # => "2007-01-18 06:10:17"
time.to_formatted_s(:number)        # => "20070118061017"
time.to_formatted_s(:short)         # => "18 Jan 06:10"
time.to_formatted_s(:long)          # => "January 18, 2007 06:10"
time.to_formatted_s(:long_ordinal)  # => "January 18th, 2007 06:10"
time.to_formatted_s(:rfc822)        # => "Thu, 18 Jan 2007 06:10:17 -0600"

2_adding_custom_format_demo.rb

# Paste this file into:
# config/initializers/time_formats.rb

Date::DATE_FORMATS[:month_day_comma_year] = "%B %e, %Y" # January 28, 2015

3. Date syntax.md

Date Syntax Cheatsheet

From http://linux.die.net/man/3/strftime

  %a - The abbreviated weekday name (``Sun'')
  %A - The  full  weekday  name (``Sunday'')
  %b - The abbreviated month name (``Jan'')
  %B - The  full  month  name (``January'')
  %c - The preferred local date and time representation
  %d - Day of the month (01..31)
  %e - Day of the month without leading 0 (1..31) 
  %g - Year in YY (00-99)
  %H - Hour of the day, 24-hour clock (00..23)
  %I - Hour of the day, 12-hour clock (01..12)
  %j - Day of the year (001..366)
  %m - Month of the year (01..12)
  %M - Minute of the hour (00..59)
  %p - Meridian indicator (``AM''  or  ``PM'')
  %S - Second of the minute (00..60)
  %U - Week  number  of the current year,
          starting with the first Sunday as the first
          day of the first week (00..53)
  %W - Week  number  of the current year,
          starting with the first Monday as the first
          day of the first week (00..53)
  %w - Day of the week (Sunday is 0, 0..6)
  %x - Preferred representation for the date alone, no time
  %X - Preferred representation for the time alone, no date
  %y - Year without a century (00..99)
  %Y - Year with century
  %Z - Time zone name
  %% - Literal ``%'' character

   t = Time.now
   t.strftime("Printed on %m/%d/%Y")   #=> "Printed on 04/09/2003"
   t.strftime("at %I:%M%p")            #=> "at 08:56AM"