Ruby function to remove leading zeros (useful with strftime, place in application helper in Rails)

strip_zeros_from_date

# Ruby function to remove leading zeros.
# Just put an asterisk (*) in front of any possible leading zero you want to remove.
# http://www.nullislove.com/2007/05/16/time-for-strftime/
def strip_zeros_from_date(marked_date_string)
  marked_date_string.gsub('*0', '').gsub('*', '') unless marked_date_string.nil?
end