Save an integer with time_zone_select

Question

I am following the railscast on time zones found here- http://railscasts.com/episodes/106-time-zones-revised

The following is what I am using for the time zone select input. Currently the form saves a string value in the database (ie. "Alaska"). Instead, I'd like to save the UTC offset as an integer. How would I go about doing this?

<%= f.time_zone_select :time_zone, ActiveSupport::TimeZone.us_zones

mrbrdo · Answer 1 · 2012-12-04T22:14:29.633

0

You have two options, you can either use select or you can create a virtual attribute. I would probably prefer the latter option.

Since TimeZone doesn't directly give you an offset in hours (only in seconds or as a string), you can't use collection_select directly, but you can use select like this (utc_offset is in seconds):

f.select :time_zone, ActiveSupport::TimeZone.us_zones.map { |z| [z.name, z.utc_offset / 1.hour] }

If you use a virtual attribute, use the code you are already using but use :time_zone_name instead of :time_zone and then update your model like this:

def time_zone_name=(value)
  time_zone = ActiveSupport::TimeZone.new(value).utc_offset / 1.hour
end

def time_zone_name
  # time_zone is a number like -9
  ActiveSupport::TimeZone.new(time_zone).name
end

I prefer the last option because it enables you to set the time zone by offset or by name even from rails console or from anywhere where you wish to set it.

edited Dec 04 '12 at 22:14

answered Dec 04 '12 at 22:09

mrbrdo

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Time zone is not one-to-one with offset. – hoffmanc Dec 10 '12 at 16:45
He wants to save UTC offset in the database. And he wants the user to pick the time zone. Or didn't you read the question? – mrbrdo Dec 17 '12 at 22:27
Take care, there are some parts on the world which use 3.5 hours (a place in canada f.e.) – BvuRVKyUVlViVIc7 Dec 04 '13 at 11:56

Save an integer with time_zone_select

1 Answers1