On 4/30/07, Yaxm Yaxm <snowstorm+rubyforum / gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I provide a people search function that a user can specify a age range.
> I use acts_as_ferret for the search.
>
> I'd like to represent a user's birth date as a integer number, so that I
> can tell Ferret to do the comparision easily.
>
>
> #calculate birth date based on the given age
>   def self.birth_date(age)
>     born = Date.today
>     Date.new(born.year - age, born.month, born.day)
>   end
Strange this works perfectly on my box
irb(main):027:0> def birth_date(age)
irb(main):028:1>    born = Date.today
irb(main):029:1>    Date.new( born.year - age, born.month, born.day )
irb(main):030:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):031:0> birth_date 50
=> #<Date: 4871917/2,0,2299161>
irb(main):032:0> birth_date( 50 ).year
=> 1957

*However* this is code that does not work for all values on Feb 29th,
be careful about this

irb(main):033:0> Date.new( 2007, 2, 29 )
ArgumentError: invalid date
        from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/date.rb:727:in `new'
        from (irb):33

>
> # get the birth date of the user that's 50 years old
> User.birth_date(50).to_time
>
> But I got this error:
> ArgumentError: argument out of range
>         from
> C:/InstantRails-1.6-win/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1
> .4.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/date/conversions.rb:29:in `local'
>         from
> C:/InstantRails-1.6-win/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1
> .4.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/date/conversions.rb:29:in `send'
>         from
> C:/InstantRails-1.6-win/ruby/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-1
> .4.1/lib/active_support/core_ext/date/conversions.rb:29:in `to_time'

Form my expample and the stacktrace one can conclude that this is an
ActiveSupport issue. If I am not mistaken they have a method like
#years_ago
somewhere (probably adressing the Feb, 29 issue), sorry never used that stuff.

>
>
> I think the time can't be before unix epoch
> time(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_epoch it is the number of seconds
> elapsed since midnight UTC of January 1, 1970, not counting leap
> seconds. )
Hopefully you can, sure somebody knowing ActiveSupport will tell us about it


Robert
-- 
You see things; and you say Why?
But I dream things that never were; and I say Why not?
-- George Bernard Shaw