Ruby/Rails: converting a Date to a UNIX timestamp
date, ruby, ruby-on-rails, timestamp
Solution
The code `date.to_time.to_i` should work fine. The Rails console session below shows an example:
>> Date.new(2009,11,26).to_time
=> Thu Nov 26 00:00:00 -0800 2009
>> Date.new(2009,11,26).to_time.to_i
=> 1259222400
>> Time.at(1259222400)
=> Thu Nov 26 00:00:00 -0800 2009
Note that the intermediate DateTime object is in local time, so the timestamp might be several hours off from what you expect. If you want to work in UTC time, you can use DateTime's method "utc".
Problem
How would I get a UNIX timestamp (number of seconds since 1970 GMT) from a Date object in a Rails app? I know `Time#to_i` returns a timestamp, but doing `Date#to_time` and then getting the timestamp results in something that's off by about a month (not sure why...). Any help is appreciated, thanks! Edit: OK, I think I figured it out- I was processing a date several times in a loop, and each time the date was moved a little because of a time zone mismatch, ultimately leading to my timestamp being a month off. Still, I'd be interested in knowing if there's any way to do this without relying on `Date#to_time`.