Converting Time or DateTime to MySQL compatible DATETIME

Question

According to "Ruby datetime suitable for mysql comparison", I should be able to do:

Time.now.to_s(:db)

This doesn't appear to be valid anymore. I get:

irb(main):001:0> Time.now.to_s(:db)
ArgumentError: wrong number of arguments (1 for 0)
        from (irb):1:in `to_s'
        from (irb):1
        from C:/Ruby22/bin/irb:11:in `<main>'

Does this functionality still exist or do I have to manually format the date and time to fit MySQL format?

I'm using ruby 2.2.2.

The above works in Rails, but not pure Ruby. Are you in Rails? — Philip Hallstrom, Aug 10 '15 at 23:44

score 9 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 11 '15 at 00:37

9

Time#to_s doesn't accept arguments in Ruby. If you're using Rails, ActiveSupport::TimeWithZone supplies the to_s method you were referring to.

To get this format in Ruby without ActiveSupport you can use:

Time.now.strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')

edited Aug 11 '15 at 00:37

the Tin Man

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answered Aug 10 '15 at 23:49

Anthony Bobsin

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You might also try `Time.now.iso8601` which your DB should recognize. – Philip Hallstrom Aug 11 '15 at 16:32
A default MySQL instance on Google Cloud Platform with default Rails created_at and updated_at timestamps does not support iso8601. – Jason Jul 23 '20 at 13:44

Converting Time or DateTime to MySQL compatible DATETIME

1 Answers1