to_formatted_s

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

This method is aliased to to_s.

Examples:

  date = Date.new(2007, 11, 10)       # => Sat, 10 Nov 2007

  date.to_formatted_s(:db)            # => "2007-11-10"
  date.to_s(:db)                      # => "2007-11-10"

  date.to_formatted_s(:short)         # => "10 Nov"
  date.to_formatted_s(:long)          # => "November 10, 2007"
  date.to_formatted_s(:long_ordinal)  # => "November 10th, 2007"
  date.to_formatted_s(:rfc822)        # => "10 Nov 2007"

Adding your own time formats to to_formatted_s

You can add your own formats to the Date::DATE_FORMATS hash. Use the format name as the hash key and either a strftime string or Proc instance that takes a date argument as the value.

  # config/initializers/time_formats.rb
  Date::DATE_FORMATS[:month_and_year] = "%B %Y"
  Date::DATE_FORMATS[:short_ordinal] = lambda { |date| date.strftime("%B #{date.day.ordinalize}") }