by_*

by_* (byStar) is a plugin that allows you to find ActiveRecord objects given certain date objects. This was originally crafted for only finding objects within a given month, but now has extended out to much more. It now supports finding objects for:

A given year
A given month
A given fortnight
A given week
A given weekend
A given day
The current weekend
The current work week
The Past
The Future
Between certain times
As of a certain time
Up to a certain time
Before a specific record
After a specific record

All methods return scopes. I love these. You love these. Everybody loves these.

It also allows you to do nested finds on the records returned which I personally think is the coolest feature of the whole plugin:

Post.by_month(1) do
  { :include => "tags", :conditions => ["tags.name = ?", 'ruby'] }
end

If you're not using the standard created_at field: don't worry! I've covered that scenario too.

Scoping the find

You can treat all by_* methods exactly how you would treat named_scopes: they are effectively scopes in their own right. This means you are able to call them like this:

Post.by_month.my_special_scope

Where my_special_scope is a named_scope you have specified.

All the by_* methods, with the exception of previous and next, take a block which will then scope the find based on the options passed into it. You can also specify these options for each method, but the syntax may differ. The supported options are the same options that are supported by find from ActiveRecord. Please note that if you want to use conditions you have to use this syntax:

 Post.by_month(1) { { :include => "tags", :conditions => ["tags.name = ?", 'ruby'] } }

or the lengthened:

 Post.by_month(1) do
   { :include => "tags", :conditions => ["tags.name = ?", 'ruby'] }
 end

An alternative syntax to this is:

 Post.by_month(1, { :include => "tags", :conditions => ["tags.name = ?", 'ruby'] })

count_by* methods

count_by methods can be scoped to only count those records which have a specific field set, and you do this by specifying the symbol version of the name of the field, e.g;

Invoice.count_by_year(:value)

If you want to specify further arguments but do not care about the scoped field:

Invoice.count_by_year(:all, 2009)

By Year (`by_year`)

To find records based on a year you can pass it a two or four digit number:

Post.by_year(09)

This will return all posts in 2009, whereas:

Post.by_year(99)

will return all the posts in the year 1999.

You can also specify the full year:

Post.by_year(2009)
Post.by_year(1999)

When you specify a year less than 1902 and greater than 2039 using specific versions of Ruby (i.e. 1.8.6p114) an ArgumentError will be raised. We recommend you upgrade Ruby to at least 1.8.7 to stop this problem occuring.

Sum By Year (`sum_by_year`)

To sum records for the current year based on a field:

Invoice.sum_by_year(:value)

To sum records for a year based on a field:

Invoice.sum_by_year(:value, 09)

You can also pass it a full year:

Invoice.sum_by_year(:value, 2009)

Count By Year (`count_by_year`)

To count the records in the current year regardless of field:

Invoice.count_by_year

To count records in the current year where only a specific field is set:

Invoice.count_by_year(:value)

To count records in a different year regardless of field:

Invoice.count_by_year(:all, :year => 2009)

By Month (`by_month`)

If you know the number of the month you want:

Post.by_month(1)

This will return all posts in the first month (January) of the current year.

If you like being verbose:

Post.by_month("January")

This will return all posts created in January of the current year.

If you want to find all posts in January of last year just do

Post.by_month(1, :year => 2007)

Post.by_month("January", :year => 2007)

This will perform a find using the column you've specified.

If you have a Time object you can use it to find the posts:

 Post.by_month(Time.local(2008, 11, 24))

This will find all the posts in November 2008.

Sum By Month (`sum_by_month`)

To sum records for the current month:

Invoice.sum_by_month

To sum records for a numbered month based on a field:

Invoice.sum_by_month(:value, 9)

You can also specify the name of the month:

Invoice.sum_by_month(:value, "September")

You can also lookup on a different year:

Invoice.sum_by_year(:value, 9, :year => "2009")

Count By Month (`count_by_month`)

To count records for the current month regardless of field:

Invoice.count_by_month

To count records for the current month where only a specific field is set:

Invoice.count_by_month(:value)

To count records for a different month regardless of field:

Invoice.count_by_month(:all, 9)

To count records for a different month in the current year:

Invoice.count_by_month(:number, 9)

To count records for a different month in a different year:

Invoice.count_by_month(:number, 9, :year => 2008)

By Fortnight (`by_fortnight`)

Fortnight numbering starts at 0. The beginning of a fortnight is Monday, 12am.

To find records from the current fortnight:

Post.by_fortnight

To find records based on a fortnight, you can pass in a number (representing the fortnight number) or a time object:

Post.by_fortnight(18)

This will return all posts in the 18th fortnight of the current year.

Post.by_fortnight(18, :year => 2008)

This will return all posts in the 18th fortnight week of 2008.

Post.by_fortnight(Time.local(2008,1,1))

This will return all posts from the first fortnight of 2008.

By Week (`by_week`)

Week numbering starts at 0. The beginning of a week is Monday, 12am.

To find records from the current week:

Post.by_week

To find records based on a week, you can pass in a number (representing the week number) or a time object:

Post.by_week(36)

This will return all posts in the 36th week of the current year.

Post.by_week(36, :year => 2008)

This will return all posts in the 36th week of 2008.

Post.by_week(Time.local(2008,1,1))

This will return all posts from the first week of 2008.

By Weekend (`by_weekend`)

If the time passed in (or the time now is a weekend) it will return posts from 12am Saturday to 11:59:59PM Sunday. If the time is a week day, it will show all posts for the coming weekend.

Post.by_weekend(Time.now)

By Day (`by_day` or `today`)

To find records for today:

Post.by_day
Post.today

To find records for a certain day:

Post.by_day(Time.local(2008, 1, 1))

You can also pass a string:

Post.by_day("next tuesday")

This will return all posts for the given day.

Sum By Day (`sum_by_day`)

To sum records for the current day:

Event.sum_by_day

The sum_by_day method's second argument works in the same was as by_day, accepting Time, String, Date and chronicable strings:

Event.sum_by_day(:value, Time.now)
Event.sum_by_day(:value, Date.today)

Current Weekend (`by_current_weekend`)

If you are currently in a weekend (between 3pm Friday and 3am Monday) this will find all records starting at 3pm the previous Friday up until 3am, Monday.

If you are not in a weekend (between 3am Monday and 3pm Friday) this will find all records from the next Friday 3pm to the following Monday 3am.

Current Work Week (`by_current_work_week`)

If you are currently in a work week (between 3am Monday and 3pm Friday) this will find all records in that range. If you are currently in a weekend (between 3pm Friday and 3am Monday) this will return all records in the upcoming work week.

Tomorrow (`tomorrow`)

This method has been shown to be shifty when passed a Date object, it is recommended that you pass it a Time object instead.

To find all posts from the day after the current date:

Post.tomorrow

To find all posts after a given Date or Time object:

Post.tomorrow(Date.today + 2)
Post.tomorrow(Time.now + 5.days)

You can also pass a string:

Post.tomorrow("next tuesday")

Yesterday (`yesterday`)

This method has been shown to be shifty when passed a Date object, it is recommended that you pass it a Time object instead.

To find all posts from the day before the current date:

Post.yesterday

To find all posts before a given Date or Time object:

Post.yesterday(Date.today + 2)
Post.yesterday(Time.now + 5.days)

You can also pass a string:

Post.yesterday("next tuesday")

Past (`past`)

To find all posts before the current time:

Post.past

To find all posts before certain time or date:

Post.past(Date.today + 2)
Post.past(Time.now + 5.days)

You can also pass a string:

Post.past("next tuesday")

Future (`future`)

To find all posts after the current time:

Post.future

To find all posts after certain time or date:

Post.future(Date.today + 2)
Post.future(Time.now + 5.days)

You can also pass a string:

Post.future("next tuesday")

Between (`between`)

To find records between two times:

Post.between(time1, time2)

Also works with dates:

Post.between(date1, date2)

And with strings:

Post.between("last tuesday", "next wednesday")

As of (`as_of_<dynamic>`)

To find records as of a certain date up until the current time:

Post.as_of_2_weeks_ago

This uses the Chronic "human mind reading" (read: it's really good at determining what time you mean using written English) library to work it out.

Up to (`up_to_<dynamic>`)

To find records up to a certain time from the current time:

Post.up_to_6_weeks_from_now

Previous (`previous`)

To find the record prior to this one call previous on any model instance:

Post.last.previous

You can specify a field also:

Post.last.previous("published_at")

Next (`next`)

To find the record after this one call next on any model instance:

Post.last.next

You can specify a field also:

Post.last.next("published_at")

Not using created_at? No worries!

If your database uses something other than created_at for storing a timestamp, you can specify the field option like this:

Post.by_month("January", :field => :something_else)

All methods support this extra option.

Or if you're doing it all the time on your model, then it's best to use by_star_field at the top of your model:

class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
  by_star_field :something_else
end

Ordering records

To order the returned set of records you may specify an :order option which works the same was as a standard AR :order option:

 Item.by_month(1, :order => "position DESC")

"Chronicable string"

This means a string that can be parsed with the Chronic gem.

Collaborators

Unfortunately I forget who exactly prompted me to write the plugin, but I would like to thank #rubyonrails for their support and the following people:

Mislav Marohnic
August Lilleas (leethal)
gte351s
Thomase Sinclair (anathematic)
Sam Elliott (lenaryg)
The dude(s) & gal(s) who created Chronic
Erik Fonselius

Suggestions?

If you have suggestions, please contact me at [email protected]

by_*

Scoping the find

count_by* methods

By Year (by_year)

Sum By Year (sum_by_year)

Count By Year (count_by_year)

By Month (by_month)

Sum By Month (sum_by_month)

Count By Month (count_by_month)

By Fortnight (by_fortnight)

By Week (by_week)

By Weekend (by_weekend)

By Day (by_day or today)

Sum By Day (sum_by_day)

Current Weekend (by_current_weekend)

Current Work Week (by_current_work_week)

Tomorrow (tomorrow)

Yesterday (yesterday)

Past (past)

Future (future)

Between (between)

As of (as_of_<dynamic>)

Up to (up_to_<dynamic>)

Previous (previous)

Next (next)

Not using created_at? No worries!

Ordering records

"Chronicable string"

Collaborators

Suggestions?

By Year (`by_year`)

Sum By Year (`sum_by_year`)

Count By Year (`count_by_year`)

By Month (`by_month`)

Sum By Month (`sum_by_month`)

Count By Month (`count_by_month`)

By Fortnight (`by_fortnight`)

By Week (`by_week`)

By Weekend (`by_weekend`)

By Day (`by_day` or `today`)

Sum By Day (`sum_by_day`)

Current Weekend (`by_current_weekend`)

Current Work Week (`by_current_work_week`)

Tomorrow (`tomorrow`)

Yesterday (`yesterday`)

Past (`past`)

Future (`future`)

Between (`between`)

As of (`as_of_<dynamic>`)

Up to (`up_to_<dynamic>`)

Previous (`previous`)

Next (`next`)