Convert DateTime String to UTC in rails

Question

I have a string like this:

\"2010-01-01 12:30:00\"

I need that to convert to UTC from the current local time zone.

I tried this, but it

Answer 1

Time.parse("2010-01-01 12:30:00").getutc

EDIT

(grinding teeth while thinking about the nightmare which is Ruby/Rails date/time handling)

OK, how about this:

Time.zone.parse("2010-01-01 12:30:00").utc

Note that Time.zone.parse returns a DateTime, while appending the .utc gives you a Time. There are differences, so beware.

Also, Time.zone is part of Rails (ActiveSupport), not Ruby. Just so you know.

Answer 2

For APIs you can use:

utc_date = Time.parse("2013-05-31 00:00").utc.iso8601 #=> Result will be: 2013-05-30T21:00:00Z

You can check these articles:

• Working with time zones in Ruby on Rails
• ISO8601 - Dates In Ruby

Answer 3

In Rails 4 and above you can directly use in_time_zone

"2010-01-01 12:30:00".in_time_zone
#=> Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:30:00 EST -05:00

"2010-01-01 12:30:00".in_time_zone.utc
#=> 2010-01-01 17:30:00 UTC