Question

I have a method which takes a DateTime (currently as a string) which i then convert to a DateTime object, for example:

def foo(time)
  the_time = Time.parse(time)
  ...
end

and so,

foo("2012-09-03")

I would like to also be able to parse a DateTime object:

foo(Time.now)

But Time.parse complains that I am not giving it a string:

NoMethodError: undefined method `gsub!' for 2012-08-08 15:59:00 UTC:Time

Is there an elegant (one line?) way to return a DateTime object from a string or DateTime object (i would prefer to avoid using if statements)

Thanks

Edit: Thanks for the comments – I have no real aversion to using an if statement, I was just seeing if there was anything nicer

Answer 1

Here’s one way to do it without if statements:

def foo(time)
  the_time = Time.parse(time.to_s)
  # ...
end

However if you’re looking for an elegant solution, I’d doubt that re-parsing date can be considered as such. Why do you think if is a bad option? Here’s how I’d do it:

def foo(time)
  the_time = time.respond_to?(:to_time) ? time.to_time : Time.parse(time.to_s)
  # ...
end