# Time problems **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [May 17, 2010, 7:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/time-problems/188716 "2010-05-17T07:31:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![badnaam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@badnaam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/badnaam)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 7:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/time-problems/188716/1 "2010-05-17T07:31:09Z")
I am storying a column called start time and endtime, both having mysql type “time”. I am using formtastic to create the forms like \<%= f.input :time\_start, :label =\> “Between”, :as =\> :time, :ignore\_date =\> true %\> The time gets stored just fine (though in 24 hour format, which is another headache), but when I extract this time to compare it to Time.now, to figure out, if “now” is between end and start time, the time returned is something like Sat Jan 01 15:00:00 UTC 2000, which is nowhere in 2010. Why is this happening? Whats the best way to store start and end time to compare later on with “now”. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![badnaam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@badnaam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/badnaam)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 9:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/time-problems/188716/2 "2010-05-17T09:18:49Z")
On May 17, 6:29 am, badnaam [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I am storying a column called start time and endtime, both having > mysql type “time”. [snip] > The time gets stored just fine (though in 24 hour format, which is > another headache), but when I extract this time to compare it to > Time.now, to figure out, if “now” is between end and start time, the > time returned is something like Sat Jan 01 15:00:00 UTC 2000, which is > nowhere in 2010. > > Why is this happening? Whats the best way to store start and end time > to compare later on with “now”. The mysql time type is a pure time of day type (ie no date component). You want a datetime column. Fred ---
**Author:** ![badnaam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@badnaam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/badnaam)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 6:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/time-problems/188716/3 "2010-05-17T18:57:47Z")
Thanks Frederick. If I do that, it stores the date of the day the record was updated or created, I would still need to extract just the time portion and compare it. Is there a way to do that? My use case is that on May 1st, customer makes reservation beween 7-9pm for May 5th. The record is stored with timestamps of 5/1/2010: 7-9 pm. When he shows up on May5th, I need to validate Time.now… whether it’s between 7 - 9. On May 17, 12:17 am, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![badnaam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@badnaam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/badnaam)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/time-problems/188716/4 "2010-05-17T19:40:44Z")
badnaam wrote: > The time gets stored just fine (though in 24 hour format, which is > another headache) Time is effectively meaningless without the date part. You say you want to validate times like 7 pm to 9 pm. Does that mean 7-9 pm standard time or daylight time? Without the date you can’t know. The time can be stored in UTC, but in order to display the time in a format your users will understand (local time) you again must know the date. > My use case is that on May 1st, customer makes reservation beween > 7-9pm for May 5th. The record is stored with timestamps of 5/1/2010: > 7-9 pm. > > When he shows up on May5th, I need to validate Time.now… whether it’s > between 7 - 9. > On May 17, 12:17�am, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) Even in your example you are specifying the date with the time. So if your customer makes a reservation between 7-9pm on May 5th, store a datetime range where start\_time = May 5, 2010 7:00 PM EDT and end\_time = May 5, 2010 9:00 PM EDT.