Format Authlogic "last_login_at" string

Question

Using Authlogic, the time format for @user.last_login_at" looks like this:

Mon Apr 12 16:52:56 -0400 2010

How can I mangle that into a more user friendly string?

Answer 1

Use strftime:

@user.last_login_at.strftime("%d %m %Y %I:%M:%S")

Answer 2

Use;

@user.last_login_at.d.strftime(‘%b %d, %Y’) 

# will print April 12, 2010

The following are the format codes;
Format  Meaning
%a  The abbreviated weekday name (“Sun’’)
%A  The full weekday name (“Sunday’’)
%b  The abbreviated month name (“Jan’’)
%B  The full month name (“January’’)
%c  The preferred local date and time representation
%d  Day of the month (01..31)
%H  Hour of the day, 24-hour clock (00..23)
%I  Hour of the day, 12-hour clock (01..12)
%j  Day of the year (001..366)
%m  Month of the year (01..12)
%M  Minute of the hour (00..59)
%p  Meridian indicator (“AM’’ or “PM’’)
%S  Second of the minute (00..60)
%U  Week number of the current year, starting with the first Sunday as the first day of the first week (00..53)
%W  Week number of the current year, starting with the first Monday as the first day of the first week (00..53)
%w  Day of the week (Sunday is 0, 0..6)
%x  Preferred representation for the date alone, no time
%X  Preferred representation for the time alone, no date
%y  Year without a century (00..99)
%Y  Year with century
%Z  Time zone name
%%  Literal “%’’ character

Answer 3

As others have pointed to, strftime works--but if you're using authlogic in a Rails app, there are some prerolled time helpers. @user.last_login_at.to_s(:long) for example.