# using strptime to create a date object **URL:** \ **Category:** rubyonrails-talk\ **Created:** [July 24, 2008, 11:55pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/using-strptime-to-create-a-date-object/32352 "2008-07-24T23:55:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dave\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_L](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Dave_L)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2008, 11:55pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/using-strptime-to-create-a-date-object/32352/1 "2008-07-24T23:55:38Z")
Im wondering if it is possible to turn a string with a month name such as: "July 20, 2008" directly into a date object using strptime. If this is not possible am I going to have to write my own function to do this? I was thinking I could have and array with all the months and shuffle through it to get the month number and then use that to create a date object. ---
**Author:** ![11175](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/8edcca/32.png) [@11175](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/11175)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/using-strptime-to-create-a-date-object/32352/2 "2008-07-25T00:08:02Z")
Dave Lynam wrote: > Im wondering if it is possible to turn a string with a month name such as: "July 20, 2008" directly into a date object using strptime. If this is not possible am I going to have to write my own function to do this? I was thinking I could have and array with all the months and shuffle through it to get the month number and then use that to create a date object. Date.strptime("July 20, 2008", "%b %d, %Y") ---
**Author:** ![Elad\_Meidar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Elad\_Meidar](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Elad_Meidar)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2008, 12:13am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/using-strptime-to-create-a-date-object/32352/3 "2008-07-25T00:13:59Z")
Something like the chronic gem at [http://chronic.rubyforge.org/](http://chronic.rubyforge.org/) maybe?