to_formatted_s

Converts to a formatted string. See DATE_FORMATS for builtin formats.

This method is aliased to to_s.

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

  time.to_formatted_s(:time)          # => "06:10:17"
  time.to_s(:time)                    # => "06:10:17"

  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"

Adding your own time formats to to_formatted_s

You can add your own formats 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 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}") }