Is DateTime.parse() in Ruby dependent on locale?

Question

I'm wondering regarding the output of the following example: when parsing 01/03, will it be resolved as Mar, 1st or Jan, 3rd?

Answer 1

Ruby is not locale dependent. Because Ruby is a server-side language and not a client-side language like JavaScript, Ruby uses the system clock from your web app server - and uses this information to calculate the time. Whatever timezone you have your system set to is what your Ruby app will use.

When parsing a date from a string, DateTime will make its best guess based on how the input is formatted:

DateTime.parse('01/03')
#=> Thu, 03 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

DateTime.parse('2019/01/03')
#=> Thu, 03 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

DateTime.parse('01/03/2019')
#=> Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

You can also explicitly tell DateTime how you want your string parsed using strptime:

date = '01-03-2019'

DateTime.strptime(date, '%m-%d-%Y')
#=> Thu, 03 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

DateTime.strptime(date, '%d-%m-%Y')
#=> Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000