Ruby implementation of the Extended Date/Time Format Specification.

As of EDTF Specification DRAFT, August 4, 2001:

• Level 0: fully implemented
• Level 1: fully implemented
• Level 2: implemented features 202, 203, 204, 2041, 207, 208, and 209

The level 2 list extensions (203 and 204) currently return simple Ruby arrays; therefore, advanced behavior (such as 'earlier' or 'later') is parsed correctly but not yet exposed by the Ruby API.

The level 2 extensions 201 and 205 are currently not supported.

EDTF-Ruby has been confirmed to work on the following Ruby implementations: 1.9.2, 1.8.7, rbx, jruby.

EDTF Ruby is implemented as an extension to the regular Ruby date/time classes. You can access parse EDTF strings either using Date.edtf or EDTF.parse; if given a valid EDTF string the return value will either be an (extended) Date, EDTF::Interval or Range (for masked precision strings) instance.

$ [sudo] gem install edtf
$ irb
> require 'edtf'
> d = Date.edtf('1984?')
> d.uncertain?
 => true
> d.certain!
> d.uncertain?               
 => false
> d = Date.edtf('1999-03-uu')
> d.unspecified?
 => true
> d.unspecified? :year
 => false
> d.unspecified? :day
 => true
> Date.edtf('2003-24').winter?
 => true
> Date.edtf('196x')
 => #<Date: 1960-01-01>...#<Date: 1970-01-01>
> Date.edtf('y-17e7').year
 => -170000000
> d = Date.edtf('1984-06?/2004-08?')
> d.from.uncertain?
 => true
> d.each.to_a.length
 => 7367 # days between 1984-06 and 2004-08
> Date.edtf('2004-01-01/open').open?
 => true

For additional features take a look at the rdoc, source, and rspec examples.

$ git clone https://[email protected]/inukshuk/edtf-ruby.git
$ cd edtf-ruby
$ bundle install
$ bundle exec rake racc
$ bundle exec rspec spec
$ bundle exec cucumber

For extra credit, fork the project on github: pull requests welcome!

EDTF-Ruby was written by Sylvester Keil.

Published under the terms and conditions of the FreeBSD License; see LICENSE for details.