Question

I’m trying to format dates in a Rails view.

<td><%= l order.ship_date, :format => :long %></td>

This doesn’t work if the date is nil:

Object must be a Date, DateTime or Time object. nil given.

What’s the best “Rails” solution?

Answer 1

Just add a failsafe if the object is nil:

<td><%= l(order.ship_date, :format => :long) if order.ship_date %></td>

If you want to display something in case it’s nil:

<td><%= order.ship_date ? l(order.ship_date, :format => :long) : "Some text" %></td>