Convert to/from DateTime and Time in Ruby

Solution 1:

require 'time'
require 'date'

t = Time.now
d = DateTime.now

dd = DateTime.parse(t.to_s)
tt = Time.parse(d.to_s)

Solution 2:

As an update to the state of the Ruby ecosystem, Date, DateTime and Time now have methods to convert between the various classes. Using Ruby 1.9.2+:

pry
[1] pry(main)> ts = 'Jan 1, 2000 12:01:01'
=> "Jan 1, 2000 12:01:01"
[2] pry(main)> require 'time'
=> true
[3] pry(main)> require 'date'
=> true
[4] pry(main)> ds = Date.parse(ts)
=> #<Date: 2000-01-01 (4903089/2,0,2299161)>
[5] pry(main)> ds.to_date
=> #<Date: 2000-01-01 (4903089/2,0,2299161)>
[6] pry(main)> ds.to_datetime
=> #<DateTime: 2000-01-01T00:00:00+00:00 (4903089/2,0,2299161)>
[7] pry(main)> ds.to_time
=> 2000-01-01 00:00:00 -0700
[8] pry(main)> ds.to_time.class
=> Time
[9] pry(main)> ds.to_datetime.class
=> DateTime
[10] pry(main)> ts = Time.parse(ts)
=> 2000-01-01 12:01:01 -0700
[11] pry(main)> ts.class
=> Time
[12] pry(main)> ts.to_date
=> #<Date: 2000-01-01 (4903089/2,0,2299161)>
[13] pry(main)> ts.to_date.class
=> Date
[14] pry(main)> ts.to_datetime
=> #<DateTime: 2000-01-01T12:01:01-07:00 (211813513261/86400,-7/24,2299161)>
[15] pry(main)> ts.to_datetime.class
=> DateTime

Solution 3:

You'll need two slightly different conversions.

To convert from Time to DateTime you can amend the Time class as follows:

require 'date'
class Time
  def to_datetime
    # Convert seconds + microseconds into a fractional number of seconds
    seconds = sec + Rational(usec, 10**6)

    # Convert a UTC offset measured in minutes to one measured in a
    # fraction of a day.
    offset = Rational(utc_offset, 60 * 60 * 24)
    DateTime.new(year, month, day, hour, min, seconds, offset)
  end
end

Similar adjustments to Date will let you convert DateTime to Time .

class Date
  def to_gm_time
    to_time(new_offset, :gm)
  end

  def to_local_time
    to_time(new_offset(DateTime.now.offset-offset), :local)
  end

  private
  def to_time(dest, method)
    #Convert a fraction of a day to a number of microseconds
    usec = (dest.sec_fraction * 60 * 60 * 24 * (10**6)).to_i
    Time.send(method, dest.year, dest.month, dest.day, dest.hour, dest.min,
              dest.sec, usec)
  end
end

Note that you have to choose between local time and GM/UTC time.

Both the above code snippets are taken from O'Reilly's Ruby Cookbook. Their code reuse policy permits this.