# Timeunits-0.0.0 **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [September 6, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/timeunits-0-0-0/67669 "2006-09-06T00:04:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/timeunits-0-0-0/67669/1 "2006-09-06T00:04:42Z")
we’ve all written bits of it before, here it is for that don’t want to: NAME timeunits.rb URIS [http://rubyforge.org/projects/codeforpeople/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/codeforpeople/) [http://codeforpeople.org/lib/ruby/](http://codeforpeople.org/lib/ruby/) SYNOPSIS adds methods to Numeric and Time classes to support time units and time difference units. EXAMPLE ``` harp:~ > cat a.rb require "timeunits" require "yaml" now = Time::now a = now y "a" => a b = now + 2.hours + 2.minutes y "b" => b d = b - a %w( seconds minutes hours days ).each do |unit| y "d.#{ unit }" => d.send(unit) end harp:~ > ruby a.rb a: 2006-09-05 15:33:23.697319 -06:00 b: 2006-09-05 17:35:23.697319 -06:00 d.seconds: 7320.0 d.minutes: 122.0 d.hours: 2.03333333333333 d.days: 0.0847222222222222 ``` DOCS see lib/\* enjoy. -a ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 12:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/timeunits-0-0-0/67669/2 "2006-09-06T00:20:44Z")
On Wednesday, September 06, 2006, at 6:43 AM, wrote: > [http://rubyforge.org/projects/codeforpeople/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/codeforpeople/) > require “timeunits” > d = b - a > d.days: 0.0847222222222222 > what science finds to be nonexistent, we must accept as nonexistent; > but what > science merely does not find is a completely different matter… it > is quite > clear that there are many, many mysterious things. > > - h.h. the 14th dalai lama FWIW, Rails already does this, as does Facets, the conversions gem, and the ruby-units gem. The API varies a little bit. \_Kevin [www.sciwerks.com](http://www.sciwerks.com) ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/timeunits-0-0-0/67669/3 "2006-09-06T00:36:46Z")
On Wed, 6 Sep 2006, Kevin O. wrote: > FWIW, > > Rails already does this, as does Facets, the conversions gem, and the > ruby-units gem. > > The API varies a little bit. they do this? a = Time.now b = a + 42.seconds delta = b - a p delta.days #=\> 0.000486111111111111 i didn’t know they handled time differences too? i’m sure rails does not do this and the docs for facets seems to show it does not. are you sure? i thought the example was pretty clear that the unit methods were asymetric in the way they operate on times and time deltas… if not, sorry. cheers. -a ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 1:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/timeunits-0-0-0/67669/4 "2006-09-06T01:58:51Z")
On Sep 5, 2006, at 6:36 PM, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote: > a = Time.now > b = a + 42.seconds > > delta = b - a > > p delta.days #=\> 0.000486111111111111 > > i didn’t know they handled time differences too? i’m sure rails > does not do > this and the docs for facets seems to show it does not. are you sure? I’m not exactly sure what delta.days means in this case, but rails does the following with your example: % script/console Loading development environment. > > a = Time.now > > =\> Tue Sep 05 19:50:11 -0400 2006 > > > b = a + 42.seconds > > =\> Tue Sep 05 19:50:53 -0400 2006 > > > delta = b - a > > =\> 42.0 > > > p delta.days > > 3628800.0 > > =\> nil ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 2:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/timeunits-0-0-0/67669/5 "2006-09-06T02:54:56Z")
On Wed, 6 Sep 2006, Logan C. wrote: > I’m not exactly sure what delta.days means in this case, but rails does the > following with your example: it’s the difference (delta) in days. > 3628800.0 > =\> nil right. that is totally wrong. the difference is only 42 seconds, therefor it should be a fractional day. eg. ``` harp:~ > cat a.rb require 'yaml' require 'rubygems' require 'timeunits' a = Time.now.utc b = a + 42.seconds delta = b - a y 'delta.decades' => delta.decades y 'delta.years' => delta.years y 'delta.months' => delta.months y 'delta.days' => delta.days y 'delta.minutes' => delta.minutes y 'delta.seconds' => delta.seconds harp:~ > ruby a.rb delta.decades: 1.44675925925926e-07 delta.years: 1.44675925925926e-06 delta.months: 1.73611111111111e-05 delta.days: 0.000486111111111111 delta.minutes: 0.7 delta.seconds: 42.0 ``` the src is extremely short - read it for details. hopefully though, this example show the difference. -a ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 3:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/timeunits-0-0-0/67669/6 "2006-09-06T03:12:56Z")
On Wed, 6 Sep 2006, Logan C. wrote: > > > The API varies a little bit. > > > i didn’t know they handled time differences too? i’m sure rails does not > > > b = a + 42.seconds > > > =\> Tue Sep 05 19:50:53 -0400 2006 > > > > > delta = b - a > > > =\> 42.0 > > > > > p delta.days > > > 3628800.0 > > > =\> nil i just realized this might explain it better harp:~ \> cat a.rb require ‘yaml’ require ‘rubygems’ require ‘timeunits’ a = Time.now.utc b = a + 42.seconds delta = b - a y ‘delta.days’ =\> delta.days pct\_day = delta.days y ‘seconds’ =\> (pct\_day \* 1.day).seconds harp:~ \> ruby a.rb delta.days: 0.000486111111111111 seconds: 42.0 -a ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 12:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/timeunits-0-0-0/67669/7 "2006-09-06T12:19:41Z")
\<…\> > > > > delta = b - a > > > > =\> 42.0 > > > > > > > p delta.days > > > > 3628800.0 > > > > =\> nil > > right. that is totally wrong. the difference is only 42 seconds, therefor it > should be a fractional day. eg. > \<…\> ‘days’ and similar methods in Rails are core extensions and return number of seconds. So 42.days returns number of seconds in 42 days. Useful for things like: > > 10.minutes.ago > > =\> Wed Sep 06 12:56:52 FLE Daylight Time 2006 > > > 3.days.since > > =\> Sat Sep 09 13:06:58 FLE Daylight Time 2006 Regards, Rimantas ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 4:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/timeunits-0-0-0/67669/8 "2006-09-06T16:36:12Z")
On Wed, 6 Sep 2006, Rimantas L. wrote: > \<…\> > =\> Sat Sep 09 13:06:58 FLE Daylight Time 2006 > thanks, i realize that. this little extension does both: ``` harp:~ > cat a.rb require 'timeunits' a = Time.now.utc b = a + 42.days # like rails, facets, etc. p a p b delta = b - a p delta.days # inverse operation harp:~ > ruby a.rb Wed Sep 06 14:23:29 UTC 2006 Wed Oct 18 14:23:29 UTC 2006 42.0 ``` not that computing ‘days’ on a difference is the inverse operation (/) as compared to when doing in a summation (’\*’). regards. -a ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2006, 8:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/timeunits-0-0-0/67669/9 "2006-09-06T08:03:19Z")
On Wednesday, September 06, 2006, at 10:04 AM, wrote: > > > > ruby-units gem. > > > > delta = b - a > > > > require ‘timeunits’ > > is quite > clear that there are many, many mysterious things. > > - h.h. the 14th dalai lama Hmm, yeah looks like rails has some issues there, although you can do… (42.seconds / 1.day).to\_f #=\> 0.000486111111111111 in rails. I like this better… require ‘rubygems’ require ‘ruby-units’ a = “#{Time.now.to\_i} s”.unit b = a + ‘42 s’ delta = b-a #=\> 42 s delta.to(“days”) #=\> 0.000486111 d delta.to(“fortnight”) #=\>3.47222e-05 fortnight delta.to(“ms”) #=\>42000 ms delta.to(‘century’) #=\> 1.33093e-08 century I’m sure you can do something similar with Facets. You can also do just about any other unit you can think of with Facets and ruby-units. Disclaimer: there are still a few bugs in ruby-units, mostly related to properly parsing some ambiguous units. \_Kevin [www.sciwerks.com](http://www.sciwerks.com)