Using Time.parse in Ruby

There are some Time extension methods, for example Time.parse, which are not automatically imported into Ruby scripts as part of the standard library. To use these methods you probably need to add this line to the top of your script:

require 'time'

Time.parse converts a time or date into a Time object:

Time.parse("12:30")     #=> 2013-01-14 12:30:00 +0000
Time.parse("7/23")      #=> 2013-07-23 00:00:00 +0000
Time.parse("Mar 30")    #=> 2013-03-30 00:00:00 +0000

If elements are missing, the more significant ones are assumed to be equivalent to Time.now, e.g. the date in the first example or the year in the second and third examples above. The less significant ones are assumed to be zeros, e.g. the time in the second and third examples or the seconds in the first example above.

A second parameter can be passed to set a different time to Time.now.

Time.parse("12:30", Time.gm(2012, 01, 01))  
#=> 2012-01-01 12:30:00 +0000

You can see full documentation for this and the other additional Time methods in the source of your Ruby distribution at lib/ruby/1.9.1/time.rb (the exact location depends on your Ruby version and distribution). Or you can see it at Rubydoc or the Rubinius Github distribution.

See also the standard library Time class reference (for Ruby 1.9.3).