method
to_date
v4.1.8 -
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- Class:
String
to_date()public
Converts a string to a Date value.
"1-1-2012".to_date # => Sun, 01 Jan 2012 "01/01/2012".to_date # => Sun, 01 Jan 2012 "2012-12-13".to_date # => Thu, 13 Dec 2012 "12/13/2012".to_date # => ArgumentError: invalid date
2Notes
Month-first date string no longer parses correctly
The following date format won't be parsed correctly:
'06/15/2008'.to_date
Use this instead:
Date.strptime("6/15/2012", '%m/%d/%Y')
String to date conversion not necessarily symmetric
Note that converting from Date to String and back again is not necessarily symmetric, because the conversion to string may result in a format that is not properly converted by to_date.
For one thing, to_date sets the century argument in _parse to false. Thus if the default date format has a two-digit year, like the :short one, the century will be dropped.
Date.today.to_s.to_date #=> Mon, 28 Nov 0012