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DateTime Methods

now()

Current date and time as a DateTime object

puts now()

→ 2026-04-02 06:21:00.946891

today()

Today's date at midnight

puts today()

→ 2026-04-02 00:00:00

date_parse(str, fmt)

Parse a string into a DateTime.

Default format is "%Y-%m-%d". Pass a custom format as the second argument

puts date_parse("02/04/2026", "%d/%m/%Y")

→ 2026-04-02 00:00:00

date_from(year, month, day, hour, minute, second)

Build a DateTime from components. Hour, minute, and second default to 0.

puts date_from(2026, 04, 02, 13, 25, 0)

→  2026-04-02 13:25:00

.year

Integer year. 

puts now().year 

→ 2026

.month

Integer month.

puts now().month 

→ 4

.day

Integer day of month. 

puts now().day 

→ 2

.hour

Integer hour (0–23). 

puts now().day 

→ 14

.minute

Integer minute (0–23). 

puts now().minute 

→ 30

.second

Integer second (0–23). 

puts now().second 

→ 40

.format(fmt)

Format as a string using strftime codes.

Default format is "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S".

puts now().format("%d/%m/%Y")

→ 02/04/2026

.add_days(n)

Return a new DateTime n days in the future.

Negative values go backward.

puts now().add_days(5)

→ 2026-04-07 22:59:30.275494

.add_minutes(n)

Return a new DateTime n minutes in the future.

puts now().add_minutes(5)

→ 2026-04-02 23:08:00.487584

.diff_days(other)

Number of days between two DateTime values. Always positive.

puts now().diff_days(date_parse("1977-11-22", "%Y-%m-%d"))

→ 17664

.diff_seconds(other)

Number of seconds between two DateTime values. Always positive.

puts now().diff_seconds(date_parse("1977-11-22", "%Y-%m-%d"))

→ 1526252921

.weekday

Day of week as integer.

0 = Monday, 6 = Sunday.

puts now().weekday

→ 4

.is_before(other)

True if this DateTime is earlier than other.

puts now().is_before(date_parse("1977-11-22", "%Y-%m-%d"))

→ false

.is_after(other)

True if this DateTime is later than other.

puts now().is_after(date_parse("1977-11-22", "%Y-%m-%d"))

→ true

.timestamp

Unix timestamp as a Float. Seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC.

puts now().timestamp

→ 1775275966.768478

Date Arithmetic (introduced in v1.15)

Date objects support + and - with integers (days) and comparison operators.

date + n / date - n

Add or subtract a number of days. Returns a new date object.

d = date_from(2025, 6, 1)

puts (d + 30).format("%Y-%m-%d")    # 2025-07-01
puts (d - 7).format("%Y-%m-%d")     # 2025-05-25

date_a - date_b

Subtract two dates to get the difference in days as an integer.

d1 = date_from(2025, 6, 1)
d2 = date_from(2025, 7, 1)

puts d2 - d1    # 30

Comparison operators

<, >, <=, >=, == all work between date objects.

d = date_from(2025, 6, 1)

puts d < date_from(2025, 12, 31)    # true
puts d == date_from(2025, 6, 1)     # true
puts d > date_from(2024, 1, 1)      # true