Ruby: Create range of dates

Add duration support to Range#step

module RangeWithStepTime
  def step(step_size = 1, &block)
    return to_enum(:step, step_size) unless block_given?

    # Defer to Range for steps other than durations on times
    return super unless step_size.kind_of? ActiveSupport::Duration

    # Advance through time using steps
    time = self.begin
    op = exclude_end? ? :< : :<=
    while time.send(op, self.end)
      yield time
      time = step_size.parts.inject(time) { |t, (type, number)| t.advance(type => number) }
    end

    self
  end
end

Range.prepend(RangeWithStepTime)

This approach affords

• Implicit support for preserving time-zone
• Adds duration support to the already-present Range#step method (no need for a sub-class, or convenience methods on Object, though that was still fun)
• Supports multi-part durations like 1.hour + 3.seconds in step_size

This adds support for our duration to Range using the existing API. It allows you to use a regular range in the style that we expect to simply "just work".

# Now the question's invocation becomes even
# simpler and more flexible

step = 2.months + 4.days + 22.3.seconds
( Time.now .. 7.months.from_now ).step(step) do |time|
  puts "It's #{time} (#{time.to_f})"
end

# It's 2013-10-17 13:25:07 +1100 (1381976707.275407)
# It's 2013-12-21 13:25:29 +1100 (1387592729.575407)
# It's 2014-02-25 13:25:51 +1100 (1393295151.8754072)
# It's 2014-04-29 13:26:14 +1000 (1398741974.1754072)

The previous approach

...was to add an #every using a DateRange < Range class + DateRange "constructor" on Object, then convert the times to integers internally, stepping through them in step seconds. This didn't work for time zones originally. Support for time zones was added but then another issue was found with the fact some step durations are dynamic (eg 1.month).

Reading Rubinius' Range implementation it became clear how someone might add support for ActiveSupport::Duration; so the approach was rewritten. Much thanks to Dan Nguyen for the #advance tip and debugging around this, and to Rubinius' implementation of Range#step for being beautifully written :D

Update 2015-08-14

• This patch was not merged into Rails/ActiveSupport. You should stick to for loops using #advance. If you're getting can't iterate from Time or something like that, then use this patch, or just avoid using Range.

• Updated patch to reflect Rails 4+ prepend style over alias_method_chain.

Using @CaptainPete's base, I modified it to use the ActiveSupport::DateTime#advance call. The difference comes into effect when the time intervals are non-uniform, such as `:month" and ":year"

require 'active_support/all'
class RailsDateRange < Range
  # step is similar to DateTime#advance argument
  def every(step, &block)
    c_time = self.begin.to_datetime
    finish_time = self.end.to_datetime
    foo_compare = self.exclude_end? ? :< : :<=

    arr = []
    while c_time.send( foo_compare, finish_time) do 
      arr << c_time
      c_time = c_time.advance(step)
    end

    return arr
  end
end

# Convenience method
def RailsDateRange(range)
  RailsDateRange.new(range.begin, range.end, range.exclude_end?)
end

My method also returns an Array. For comparison's sake, I altered @CaptainPete's answer to also return an array:

By hour

RailsDateRange((4.years.ago)..Time.now).every(years: 1)
=> [Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:30:07 -0400,
 Wed, 13 Oct 2010 11:30:07 -0400,
 Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:30:07 -0400,
 Sat, 13 Oct 2012 11:30:07 -0400,
 Sun, 13 Oct 2013 11:30:07 -0400]


DateRange((4.years.ago)..Time.now).every(1.year)
=> [2009-10-13 11:30:07 -0400,
 2010-10-13 17:30:07 -0400,
 2011-10-13 23:30:07 -0400,
 2012-10-13 05:30:07 -0400,
 2013-10-13 11:30:07 -0400]

By month

RailsDateRange((5.months.ago)..Time.now).every(months: 1)
=> [Mon, 13 May 2013 11:31:55 -0400,
 Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:31:55 -0400,
 Sat, 13 Jul 2013 11:31:55 -0400,
 Tue, 13 Aug 2013 11:31:55 -0400,
 Fri, 13 Sep 2013 11:31:55 -0400,
 Sun, 13 Oct 2013 11:31:55 -0400]

DateRange((5.months.ago)..Time.now).every(1.month)
=> [2013-05-13 11:31:55 -0400,
 2013-06-12 11:31:55 -0400,
 2013-07-12 11:31:55 -0400,
 2013-08-11 11:31:55 -0400,
 2013-09-10 11:31:55 -0400,
 2013-10-10 11:31:55 -0400]

By year

RailsDateRange((4.years.ago)..Time.now).every(years: 1)

=> [Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:30:07 -0400,
 Wed, 13 Oct 2010 11:30:07 -0400,
 Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:30:07 -0400,
 Sat, 13 Oct 2012 11:30:07 -0400,
 Sun, 13 Oct 2013 11:30:07 -0400]

DateRange((4.years.ago)..Time.now).every(1.year)

=> [2009-10-13 11:30:07 -0400,
 2010-10-13 17:30:07 -0400,
 2011-10-13 23:30:07 -0400,
 2012-10-13 05:30:07 -0400,
 2013-10-13 11:30:07 -0400]

No rounding errors, a Range calls the .succ method to enumerate the sequence, which is not what you want.

Not a one-liner but, a short helper function will suffice:

def datetime_sequence(start, stop, step)
  dates = [start]
  while dates.last < (stop - step)
    dates << (dates.last + step)
  end 
  return dates
end 

datetime_sequence(DateTime.now, DateTime.now + 1.day, 1.hour)

# [Mon, 30 Sep 2013 08:28:38 -0400, Mon, 30 Sep 2013 09:28:38 -0400, ...]

Note, however, this could be wildly inefficient memory-wise for large ranges.

---

Alternatively, you can use seconds since the epoch:

start = DateTime.now
stop  = DateTime.now + 1.day
(start.to_i..stop.to_i).step(1.hour)

# => #<Enumerator: 1380545483..1380631883:step(3600 seconds)>

You'll have a range of integers, but you can convert back to a DateTime easily:

Time.at(i).to_datetime