Get start and end epoch times for today

Question

I'm using an API that requires a start_time and an end_time in epoch that will give me data between those times. The question is I want all the data from the start of UTC today to the end of UTC today.

What's the most effective way to do this in ruby?

Answer 1

You can use the ActiveSupport Date functions #beginning_of_day and #end_of_day. And use to_i to convert the time to seconds since Epoch.

require 'active_support/core_ext'

Date.today.beginning_of_day.to_i
# => 1395532800 
Date.today.end_of_day.to_i
# => 1395619199 

Answer 2

Date.today.to_time.to_i

should get you the start, and

(Date.today + 1).to_time.to_i

should get you the end.

Answer 3

If you are not using rails or do not wish to import require 'active_support/core_ext' for some reason you can do it using ruby as follows

Date.today.to_time.to_i # beginning_of_day
=> 1481221800

Date.today.to_time.change(hour: 23, min: 59, sec: 59).to_i # end_of_day
=> 1481308199