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https://github.com/jeremyw/stamp

Date and time formatting for humans.
https://github.com/jeremyw/stamp

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Date and time formatting for humans.

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# stamp



Format dates and times based on human-friendly examples, not arcane

[strftime](http://strfti.me) directives.



[![Build Status](https://secure.travis-ci.org/jeremyw/stamp.png)](http://travis-ci.org/jeremyw/stamp)



## Installation



Just `gem install stamp`, or add stamp to your Gemfile and `bundle install`.



## Usage



Your Ruby dates and times get a powerful new method: `stamp`.



You might be concerned that "stamp" isn't descriptive enough for developers

reading your code who aren't familiar with this gem. If that's the case, the

following aliases are provided:



* `stamp_like`

* `format_like`



### Dates



Give `Date#stamp` an example date string with whatever month, day, year,

and weekday parts you'd like, and your date will be formatted accordingly:



```ruby

date = Date.new(2011, 6, 9)

date.stamp("March 1, 1999")         #=> "June 9, 2011"

date.stamp("Jan 1, 1999")           #=> "Jun 9, 2011"

date.stamp("Jan 01")                #=> "Jun 09"

date.stamp("Sunday, May 1, 2000")   #=> "Thursday, June 9, 2011"

date.stamp("Sun Aug 5")             #=> "Thu Jun 9"

date.stamp("12/31/99")              #=> "06/09/11"

date.stamp("DOB: 12/31/2000")       #=> "DOB: 06/09/2011"

```



It even formats ordinal days!



```ruby

date.stamp("November 5th")          #=> "June 9th"

date.stamp("1st of Jan")            #=> "9th of Jun"

```



### Times



`Time#stamp` supports the same kinds of examples as `Date`, but also formats

hours, minutes, and seconds when it sees colon-separated values.



```ruby

time = Time.utc(2011, 6, 9, 20, 52, 30)

time.stamp("3:00 AM")               #=> "8:52 PM"

time.stamp("01:00:00 AM")           #=> "08:52:30 PM"

time.stamp("23:59")                 #=> "20:52"

time.stamp("23:59:59")              #=> "20:52:30"

time.stamp("Jan 1 at 01:00 AM")     #=> "Jun 9 at 08:52 PM"

time.stamp("23:59 UTC")             #=> "20:52 PST"

```



## Features



* Abbreviated and full names of months and weekdays are recognized.

* Days with or without a leading zero work instinctively.

* Standard time zone abbreviations are recognized; e.g. "UTC", "PST", "EST".

* Include any extraneous text you'd like; e.g. "DOB:".



### Disambiguation by value



You can use any month, weekday, day, or year value that makes sense in your

examples, and stamp can often infer your intent based on context, but there

may be times that you need to use unambiguous values to make your intent more

explicit.



For example, "01/09" could refer to January 9, September 1, or

January 2009. More explicit examples include "12/31", "31/12", and "12/99".



Using unambiguous values will also help people who read the code in the

future, including yourself, understand your intent.



### Rails Integration



Stamp makes it easy to configure your Rails application's common date and time

formats in a more self-documenting way with `DATE_FORMATS`:



```ruby

# config/initializers/date_formats.rb

Date::DATE_FORMATS[:short]    = Proc.new { |date| date.stamp("Sun Jan 5") }

Time::DATE_FORMATS[:military] = Proc.new { |time| time.stamp("5 January 23:59") }

```



To use your formats:



```ruby

Date.today.to_s(:short)   #=> "Sat Jul 16"

Time.now.to_s(:military)  #=> "16 July 15:35"

```



### Limitations



* `DateTime` should inherit stamp behavior from `Date`, but it hasn't been thoroughly tested. Patches welcome!



## Copyright



Copyright (c) 2011 Jeremy Weiskotten (@doctorzaius). See LICENSE.txt for

further details.