ruby DateTime parsing from 'mm/dd/yyyy' format
Solution 1:
require 'Date'
my_date = Date.strptime("12/22/2011", "%m/%d/%Y")
Solution 2:
As above, use the strptime method, but note the differences below
Date.strptime("12/22/2011", "%m/%d/%Y") => Thu, 22 Dec 2011
DateTime.strptime("12/22/2011", "%m/%d/%Y") => Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000
Time.strptime("12/22/2011", "%m/%d/%Y") => 2011-12-22 00:00:00 +0000
(the +0000 is the timezone info, and I'm now in GMT - hence +0000. Last week, before the clocks went back, I was in BST +0100. My application.rb contains the line config.time_zone = 'London')