Format DateTime in Text Box in Rails

Question

Is there an easy way to format the display of a DateTime value in a Rails view?

For example, if I'm doing something like:

<%= text_field :my_object, :start_date %>

and only want to display the Date part of the :start_date (i.e. I want to hide the time part), is there a way to format the :start_date string inside of the view such that it will work for creating new my_object items and updating new my_object items?

Just a clarification:

Doing

<%= text_field 
       :my_object,
       :start_date,
       :value => @my_object.start_date.strftime('%m/%d/%Y') %>

works beautifully when the object already exists (i.e. on item updates), however, when creating a new item, since start_date will initially be nil, the view will throw an error

while evaluating nil.strftime

Answer 1

If your form is tied to an object, (something like <% form_for(:object) do |f| %>) you should use <%= f.text_field :start_date, :value => f.object.start_date.to_s(:date_format) %>

then you can register your :date_format in config/environment.rb

Not sure why you want to do this, but i hope it's for presentation purposes only.

Answer 2

http://railscasts.com/episodes/32-time-in-text-field

Answer 3

I can think of three ways:

1) Creating a new method on the model that would format your date however you need it to be

2) Creating a helper method that would do the same

3) Have you tried doing:

<%= text_field 
   :my_object,
   :start_date,
   :value => @my_object.try(:start_date).try(:strftime,'%m/%d/%Y') %>

Answer 4

if you don't want to enter the date in a textfield, but in a less error prone select field, you could use the ActionView::Helpers::DateHelper, select_date(). see Accessing date() variables send from the date helper in rails here on SO on how to process the return values.

Answer 5

Some great suggestions here, however in those cases where you really do want your text field date formatted a specific way (say you're integrating with a javascript date picker), and you're dealing with nils, I think simply making a minor tweak to your existing method would do the trick:

:value => (@object.start_date.blank? ? '' : @object.start_date.strftime('%m/%d/%Y')

Answer 6

Great thanks to Dave Rapin!!! Your decision is exactly for me, fantastic!!!