Getting times in different convenient string representations and other objects

Methods
I
T
Constants
DATE_FORMATS = { :db => "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", :short => "%d %b %H:%M", :long => "%B %d, %Y %H:%M", :rfc822 => "%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S %z" }
 
Class Public methods
included(klass)

Source: show 

# File rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/time/conversions.rb, line 13
def self.included(klass)
  klass.send(:alias_method, :to_default_s, :to_s)
  klass.send(:alias_method, :to_s, :to_formatted_s)
end
Instance Public methods
to_date()

Source: show 

# File rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/time/conversions.rb, line 22
def to_date
  ::Date.new(year, month, day)
end
to_formatted_s(format = :default)

Source: show 

# File rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/time/conversions.rb, line 18
def to_formatted_s(format = :default)
  DATE_FORMATS[format] ? strftime(DATE_FORMATS[format]).strip : to_default_s          
end
to_time()

To be able to keep Dates and Times interchangeable on conversions

Source: show 

# File rails/activesupport/lib/active_support/core_ext/time/conversions.rb, line 27
def to_time
  self
end