Using a duration field in a Rails model

Question

I\'m looking for the best way to use a duration field in a Rails model. I would like the format to be HH:MM:SS (ex: 01:30:23). The database in use is sqlite locally and Postgr

Answer 1

I tried using ActiveSupport::Duration but had trouble getting the output to be clear.

You may like ruby-duration, an immutable type that represents some amount of time with accuracy in seconds. It has lots of tests and a Mongoid model field type.

I wanted to also easily parse human duration strings so I went with Chronic Duration. Here's an example of adding it to a model that has a time_spent in seconds field.

class Completion < ActiveRecord::Base
  belongs_to :task
  belongs_to :user

  def time_spent_text
    ChronicDuration.output time_spent
  end

  def time_spent_text= text
    self.time_spent = ChronicDuration.parse text
    logger.debug "time_spent: '#{self.time_spent_text}' for text '#{text}'"
  end

end