Question

I am using Rails 3.0.3 where I have quite an extensive validation process.

I want to make a validation where I check if a certain variable is a proper date

Basically this is what I want to do is:

def validate_date(this_date)?

    begin
       Date.parse(this_date)
    rescue
      proper_date = false
    else
          proper_date = true
    end
end

and call this method in my model using:

attr_accessor :given_date    
validate_date(given_date)

but also at another place in my validation file using for example:

attr_accessor :another_date
validate_date(another_date)

or something similar…

What do I need to do to make this work?

Answer 1

What you should do is something similar to nkm’s answer:

validates :name,
  presence => true # or other standard validations
validate :valid_my_date_variable

def valid_my_date_variable
  if my_date_variable.present?
    errors[:my_date_variable] << "is not valid" unless valid_date(my_date_variable)
  end
end

def validate_date(this_date)?
  begin
    Date.parse(this_date)
  rescue
    proper_date = false
  else
    proper_date = true
  end
end

Or you can create validator for your date and use it as you use standard validators.

Refer to documentation on how to create custom validator if you prefer keep your models cleaner.