Flowdock
method

to_formatted_s

Importance_4
v2.0.3 - Show latest stable - 2 notes - Class: ActiveSupport::CoreExtensions::DateTime::Conversions
to_formatted_s(format = :default) public

Convert to a formatted string. See Time::DATE_FORMATS for predefined formats.

This method is aliased to to_s.

Examples:

  datetime = DateTime.civil(2007, 12, 4, 0, 0, 0, 0)   # => Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

  datetime.to_formatted_s(:db)            # => "2007-12-04 00:00:00"
  datetime.to_s(:db)                      # => "2007-12-04 00:00:00"
  datetime.to_s(:number)                  # => "20071204000000"
  datetime.to_formatted_s(:short)         # => "04 Dec 00:00"
  datetime.to_formatted_s(:long)          # => "December 04, 2007 00:00"
  datetime.to_formatted_s(:long_ordinal)  # => "December 4th, 2007 00:00"
  datetime.to_formatted_s(:rfc822)        # => "Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000"

Adding your own datetime formats to to_formatted_s

DateTime formats are shared with Time. You can add your own to the Time::DATE_FORMATS hash. Use the format name as the hash key and either a strftime string or Proc instance that takes a time or datetime argument as the value. 

  # config/initializers/time_formats.rb
  Time::DATE_FORMATS[:month_and_year] = "%B %Y"
  Time::DATE_FORMATS[:short_ordinal] = lambda { |time| time.strftime("%B #{time.day.ordinalize}") }
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April 21, 2009
3 thanks

Format not coming out properly?

Date, Time and DateTime may have different formats defined.

If you do:

@user.created_at.to_formatted_s(:long_ordinal)

You will get (or something):

April 16th, 2009 22:03

But if you do:

@user.created_at.to_date.to_formatted_s(:long_ordinal)

You will get:

April 16th, 2009

So, be sure you know which one you are working with.

January 21, 2010
3 thanks

W3CDTF Format

Here is the formatted string for the W3CDTF datetime format (http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime). It has a semicolon in the timezone part, therefore you cannot use ‘%z’:

Time::DATE_FORMATS[:w3cdtf] = lambda { |time| time.strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S#{time.formatted_offset}") }