# Date Calculation **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [January 22, 2006, 3:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/date-calculation/52975 "2006-01-22T03:25:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jkay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 3:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/date-calculation/52975/1 "2006-01-22T03:25:27Z")
I am trying to calculate the number of days between 2 dates using Time.now - object.date where object.date is a date pulled from a database. I want to display the age of the entry in the database in days. I keep getting an error about not being able to convert a date into a float. What am I doing wrong. If I use object.date - object.date it seems to work but the answer is useless (0). I am doing all of this in the view. Justin ---
**Author:** ![jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jkay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 3:38am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/date-calculation/52975/2 "2006-01-22T03:38:04Z")
Justin K. wrote: > I am trying to calculate the number of days between 2 dates using > Time.now - object.date where object.date is a date pulled from a > database. I want to display the age of the entry in the database in > days. I keep getting an error about not being able to convert a date > into a float. What am I doing wrong. If I use object.date - > object.date it seems to work but the answer is useless (0). I am doing > all of this in the view. > > Justin A noobs guess: Do you mean object.to\_time instead of object.date? ---
**Author:** ![jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jkay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 4:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/date-calculation/52975/3 "2006-01-22T04:07:31Z")
Jim wrote: > Justin K. wrote: > > > I am trying to calculate the number of days between 2 dates using > > Time.now - object.date where object.date is a date pulled from a > > database. I want to display the age of the entry in the database in > > days. I keep getting an error about not being able to convert a date > > into a float. What am I doing wrong. If I use object.date - > > object.date it seems to work but the answer is useless (0). I am doing > > all of this in the view. > > > > Justin > > A noobs guess: > > Do you mean object.to\_time instead of object.date? no, in object.date, date is the name of the date field of the class “object”. ---
**Author:** ![jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jkay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 6:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/date-calculation/52975/4 "2006-01-22T06:03:20Z")
Justin K. wrote: > Jim wrote: > > > Justin K. wrote: > > > > > I am trying to calculate the number of days between 2 dates using > > > Time.now - object.date where object.date is a date pulled from a > > > database. I want to display the age of the entry in the database in > > > days. I keep getting an error about not being able to convert a date > > > into a float. What am I doing wrong. If I use object.date - > > > object.date it seems to work but the answer is useless (0). I am doing > > > all of this in the view. > > > > > > Justin > > > > A noobs guess: > > > > Do you mean object.to\_time instead of object.date? > > no, in object.date, date is the name of the date field of the class > “object”. What do you get if you put this in your view?? \<%= debug(object) %\> \<%= object.date.class %\> ---
**Author:** ![jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jkay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 10:56am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/date-calculation/52975/5 "2006-01-22T10:56:20Z")
Sky Y. wrote: > Time is time. Date is date. You can try (Date.today - object.date).to\_i > > On 1/22/06, Kevin O. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > > > > > > > \<%= debug(object) %\> > > \<%= object.date.class %\> > > > > – > > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). > > > > * * * > > > > Rails mailing list > > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) > > – > Blog \>\>\> [http://spaces.msn.com/members/skyincookoo](http://spaces.msn.com/members/skyincookoo) $ ./script/console > > “2006-1-12”.to\_time > > =\> Thu Jan 12 00:00:00 UTC 2006 So in this case, date is Time. ---
**Author:** ![jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jkay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 8:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/date-calculation/52975/6 "2006-01-22T08:08:48Z")
Time is time. Date is date. You can try (Date.today - object.date).to\_i On 1/22/06, Kevin O. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > > > \<%= debug(object) %\> > \<%= object.date.class %\> > > – > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). > > * * * > > Rails mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) – Blog \>\>\> [http://spaces.msn.com/members/skyincookoo](http://spaces.msn.com/members/skyincookoo) ---
**Author:** ![jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jkay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 12:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/date-calculation/52975/7 "2006-01-22T12:34:09Z")
No, cause you cast it to Time. If you want a Date: > > “2006-1-12”.to\_date > > =\> #\ ---
**Author:** ![jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jkay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2006, 3:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/date-calculation/52975/8 "2006-01-22T15:41:07Z")
Sky Y. wrote: > No, cause you cast it to Time. If you want a Date: > > > > “2006-1-12”.to\_date > > > =\> #\ Thanks for the hint. I needed to cast Time.now to date and it worked fine. I was trying to use a time - date and that didn’t work very well. So: Time.now.to\_date - object.created\_on = success! ---
**Author:** ![jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b4bc9f/32.png) [@jkay](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jkay)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2006, 9:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/date-calculation/52975/9 "2006-01-23T09:09:06Z")
Am Sonntag, den 22.01.2006, 15:41 +0100 schrieb Justin K.: > Time.now.to\_date - object.created\_on = success! If object.created\_on is a Date object why not use: Date.today - object.created\_on = classiness! But if it is a Time object as provided by the Activerecord::Timestamp Module you should use: ((Time.now - object.created\_on) / (60_60_24)).floor – Norman T. [http://blog.inlet-media.de](http://blog.inlet-media.de)