Question

If I’ve got a time object:

t = Time.now

and I want to know if that time is AM or PM, right now the only way I can figure to do this is:

t.strftime("%p") == "PM"

Now, that %p is getting interpolated from something, right? Is there another way to get to it?

I ask because I’m doing some time formatting where I want to display a time range like:

"9:00 AM - 5:00 PM"
"4:00 - 5:30 PM"
"10:15 - 11:45 AM"

Right now I have to do this checking the string value of strftime, but I’d prefer to write something like:

if start_time.am? && end_time.pm? || start_time.pm? && end_time.am?

…instead of the much more verbose strftime string comparisons I’m doing now.

Answer 1

Based on http://www.ruby-doc.org/core-1.9.3/Time.html, I do not believe there is any other way. You could monkey-patch Time to save you some tedious strftime, however:

class Time
  def meridian
    self.strftime('%p')
  end

  def am?
    self.meridian == 'AM'
  end

  def pm?
    self.meridian == 'PM'
  end
end