trouble making an "if" statment with time.now on ruby on rails

Question

I'm trying to display a message depending on the time of the day and I currently have this piece of code:

<% if Time.now >= "7:00" and Time.now <= "14:00" %>
Good Morning <%= current_user.nome %>! <br>
<% else %>
Good Afternoon <%= current_user.nome %>!
<% end %>

It's currently 14:30 and the page still displays Good Morning (username), when it should display Good Evening (username)

Is my code wrong?
How do I fix this?

Did you print the return of `Time.now`? – Alejandro Montilla Jul 04 '17 at 13:51 — Alejandro Montilla, Jul 04 '17 at 13:51
Can you compare a `String` with `Time`? – Sebastián Palma Jul 04 '17 at 13:53 — Sebastián Palma, Jul 04 '17 at 13:53
`2017-07-04 14:54:14 +0100 ` this is Time.Now – Dando Mando Nogger Jul 04 '17 at 13:54 — Dando Mando Nogger, Jul 04 '17 at 13:54
How do you compare `time` with `time` then? – Dando Mando Nogger Jul 04 '17 at 13:56 — Dando Mando Nogger, Jul 04 '17 at 13:56

Gagan Gami · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-04T14:00:26.273

2

try:

<% if Time.now >= Time.parse("7:00") and Time.now <= Time.parse("14:00") %>
  Good Morning <%= current_user.nome %>! <br>
<% else %>
  Good Afternoon <%= current_user.nome %>!
<% end %>

Note: Time.now will return time object while "7:00" is a string, so you need to convert string time to time object and can compare.

edited Jul 04 '17 at 14:00

answered Jul 04 '17 at 13:57

Gagan Gami

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Yep, this worked! Thanks, what was the problem with my code, can you explain why you use `Time.parse`? – Dando Mando Nogger Jul 04 '17 at 13:58

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 04 '17 at 14:06

2

You can write like this Instead of Parsing the Time you can write simply

Solution : 1

<% if Time.now.hour >= 7 && Time.now.hour <= 14 %>
Good Morning <%= current_user.nome %>! <br>
<% else %>
Good Afternoon <%= current_user.nome %>!
<% end %>

Solution : 2

you can write less code via using ternary operator

(0..11).include?(Time.now.hour) ? "Good Morning <%= current_user.nome %>" : Good Afternoon <%= current_user.nome %>

answered Jul 04 '17 at 14:06

vel pradeep.MS

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5
7

1

if Time.now >= "7:00" -- You are checking against a string Time.parse("7:00") --- This will convert the String into Time format class – vel pradeep.MS Jul 04 '17 at 14:07
`14:30` would pass your `hour <= 14` check, but it should not. – Stefan Jul 04 '17 at 14:08

spickermann · Answer 3 · 2017-07-04T14:47:44.103

2

I think this is worth it to be a helper method:

# in app/helpers/application_helper.rb
def greeting(name)
  greeting = (7..13).cover?(Time.current.hour) ? 'Good Morning' : 'Good Afternoon'

  "#{greeting} #{name}".strip
end

And in your view:

<%= greeting(current_user.nome) %>!

Another more detailed version that supports uneven times might look like this:

def greeting(name)
  greeting = case Time.current.to_s(:time)
             when ('05:00'..'11:59') then 'Good Morning'
             when ('12:00'..'17:59') then 'Good Afternoon'
             when ('18:00'..'21:59') then 'Good Evening'
             else 'Good Night'
             end
  "#{greeting} #{name}".strip
end

edited Jul 04 '17 at 14:47

answered Jul 04 '17 at 14:16

spickermann

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1

Using 13 instead of 14 would be closer to the math specified. Or an extra period `(7...14)` – Mark Thomas Jul 04 '17 at 14:20
Another way: `Time.now.hour.between?(7,13)` – Mark Thomas Jul 04 '17 at 14:23
How would you handle a time frame like 6:30-13:30? – Stefan Jul 04 '17 at 14:29
Nice, although I'd probably remove the `name` argument from the method and call it via `<%= greeting %> <%= current_user.nome %>!` – Stefan Jul 04 '17 at 14:46
That is an option. But what happens when there is a user with a blank name? – spickermann Jul 04 '17 at 14:47
Ideally, the user name should be required ;-). Of course you can handle it in the method, but it adds complexity and makes it a little less flexible. Without the `name` part, it would be a single `case` expression. – Stefan Jul 04 '17 at 15:57

Stefan · Answer 4 · 2017-07-04T14:34:54.603

I'd use a helper:

def morning?(t = Time.current)
  t.between? t.change(hour: 7), t.change(hour: 14)
end

t is a time instance, defaulting to the current time, for example:

t = Time.current
#=> Tue, 04 Jul 2017 16:30:09 CEST +02:00

change sets one or more of the time's elements. If only :hour is specified, the "smaller" units like minutes and seconds are set to 0:

t.change(hour: 7)  #=> Tue, 04 Jul 2017 07:00:00 CEST +02:00
t.change(hour: 14) #=> Tue, 04 Jul 2017 14:00:00 CEST +02:00

between? finally checks if t is between these values.

Passing the current time as an argument makes it easier to test the method:

morning? Time.parse('06:59') #=> false
morning? Time.parse('07:00') #=> true
morning? Time.parse('14:00') #=> true
morning? Time.parse('14:01') #=> false

Usage:

<% if morning? %>
  Good Morning <%= current_user.nome %>!
<% else %>
  Good Afternoon <%= current_user.nome %>!
<% end %>

I dont see the need for `helpers` since I only need this on the index view, thanks anyway! — Dando Mando Nogger, Jul 04 '17 at 14:51

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 04 '17 at 14:27

I would use helpers to store methods and keep views plain.

class ApplicationHelper
  def greeting
    "Good #{time_greeting} #{current_user.nome}"
  end

  def time_greeting
    return "Morning" if Time.now.hour.between?(7, 13)
    "Afternoon"
  end
end

Then you may only use greeting method in your views:

<%= greeting %>

trouble making an "if" statment with time.now on ruby on rails

5 Answers5