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Parsing Dates Fuzzily or Precisely
CodeExpectedActual
require 'date'
Date.parse('2/9/2007').to_s
 "2007-02-09" "2007-02-09" 
DateTime.parse('02-09-2007 12:30:44 AM').to_s
 "2007-09-02T00:30:44Z" "2007-09-02T00:30:44Z" 
DateTime.parse('02-09-2007 12:30:44 PM EST').to_s
"2007-09-02T12:30:44-0500" "2007-09-02T12:30:44-0500" 
Date.parse('Wednesday, January 10, 2001').to_s
 "2001-01-10" "2001-01-10" 
Date.parse('2/9/07').to_s
 "0007-02-09" "0007-02-09" 
american_date = '%m/%d/%y'
Date.strptime('2/9/07', american_date).to_s
 "2007-02-09" "2007-02-09" 
DateTime.strptime('2/9/05', american_date).to_s
 "2005-02-09T00:00:00Z" "2005-02-09T00:00:00Z" 
Date.strptime('2/9/68', american_date).to_s
 "2068-02-09" "2068-02-09" 
Date.strptime('2/9/69', american_date).to_s
 "1969-02-09" "1969-02-09" 
european_date = '%d/%m/%y'
Date.strptime('2/9/07', european_date).to_s
 "2007-09-02" "2007-09-02" 
Date.strptime('02/09/68', european_date).to_s
 "2068-09-02" "2068-09-02" 
Date.strptime('2/9/69', european_date).to_s
 "1969-09-02" "1969-09-02" 
four_digit_year_date = '%m/%d/%Y'
Date.strptime('2/9/2007', four_digit_year_date).to_s
 "2007-02-09" "2007-02-09" 
Date.strptime('02/09/1968', four_digit_year_date).to_s
 "1968-02-09" "1968-02-09" 
Date.strptime('2/9/69', four_digit_year_date).to_s
 "0069-02-09" "0069-02-09" 
date_and_time = '%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S %Z'
DateTime.strptime('02-09-2007 12:30:44 EST', date_and_time).to_s
 "2007-02-09T12:30:44-0500" "2007-02-09T12:30:44-0500" 
DateTime.strptime('02-09-2007 12:30:44 PST', date_and_time).to_s
 "2007-02-09T12:30:44-0800" "2007-02-09T12:30:44-0800" 
DateTime.strptime('02-09-2007 12:30:44 GMT', date_and_time).to_s
 "2007-02-09T12:30:44Z" "2007-02-09T12:30:44Z" 
twelve_hour_clock_time = '%m-%d-%Y %I:%M:%S %p'
DateTime.strptime('02-09-2007 12:30:44 AM', twelve_hour_clock_time).to_s
 "2007-02-09T00:30:44Z" "2007-02-09T00:30:44Z" 
DateTime.strptime('02-09-2007 12:30:44 PM', twelve_hour_clock_time).to_s
 "2007-02-09T12:30:44Z" "2007-02-09T12:30:44Z" 
word_date = '%A, %B %d, %Y'
Date.strptime('Wednesday, January 10, 2001', word_date).to_s
 "2001-01-10" "2001-01-10" 
Date.parse('1/10/07').to_s
 "0007-01-10" "0007-01-10" 
Date.parse('2007 1 10').to_s
 
ArgumentError: 3 elements of civil date are necessary
...
 
ArgumentError: 3 elements of civil date are necessary
	from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/date.rb:650:in `new_with_hash'
	from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/date.rb:695:in `parse'
	from (irb):30
	from :0

TRY_FORMATS = ['%d/%m/%y', '%Y %m %d']
def try_to_parse(s)
  parsed = nil
  TRY_FORMATS.each do |format|
    begin
      parsed = strptime(s, format)
      break
    rescue ArgumentError        
    end      
  end
  return parsed
end
try_to_parse('1/10/07').to_s
 
"2007-10-01"
 
Error! (Exception?) Here's stdout:
NoMethodError: undefined method `strptime' for main:Object
	from (irb):36:in `try_to_parse'
	from (irb):34:in `try_to_parse'
	from (irb):43
	from :0

try_to_parse('2007 1 10').to_s
 
"2007-01-10"
 
Error! (Exception?) Here's stdout:
NoMethodError: undefined method `strptime' for main:Object
	from (irb):36:in `try_to_parse'
	from (irb):34:in `try_to_parse'
	from (irb):44
	from :0

require 'time'
mail_received = 'Tue, 1 Jul 2003 10:52:37 +0200'
Time.rfc822(mail_received)
 Tue Jul 01 04:52:37 EDT 2003 Tue Jul 01 04:52:37 EDT 2003 
last_modified = 'Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:05:51 GMT'
Time.httpdate(last_modified)
 Tue Sep 05 12:05:51 EDT 2006 Tue Sep 05 12:05:51 EDT 2006 
timestamp = '2001-04-17T19:23:17.201Z'
t = Time.iso8601(timestamp)
 Tue Apr 17 19:23:17 UTC 2001 Tue Apr 17 19:23:17 UTC 2001 
t.sec
 17 17 
t.tv_usec
 201000 201000 
t = Time.at(1000000000)
 Sat Sep 08 21:46:40 EDT 2001 Sat Sep 08 21:46:40 EDT 2001 
t.rfc822
 "Sat, 08 Sep 2001 21:46:40 -0400" "Sat, 08 Sep 2001 21:46:40 -0400" 
t.httpdate
 "Sun, 09 Sep 2001 01:46:40 GMT" "Sun, 09 Sep 2001 01:46:40 GMT" 
t.iso8601
 "2001-09-08T21:46:40-04:00" "2001-09-08T21:46:40-04:00"