Use rails date_select without an activerecord model

I actually googled this and found a workable but ugly solution: 

 
 ## view code
<%= date_select('range', 'start_date', :order => [:month, :day, :year])%>


## controller code
@start_date = Date.civil(params[:range][:"start_date(1i)"].to_i,params[:range][:"start_date(2i)"].to_i,params[:range][:"start_date(3i)"].to_i)

I needed to include the hour and minute as well, and didn't want to cram more arguments into the Date.civil call (actually Time.zone.local), so I cleaned up the code a bit.

Hoping to leave the internet a little better for the next guy, I thought I'd post the code. 

 
 ## view code
<%= datetime_select('range_start', 'date', :order => [:month, :day, :year, :hour,:minute]) %>


# controller code
@start_date = Time.zone.local(*params[:range_start].sort.map(&:last).map(&:to_i))

Sanitizing Names for Files

I use database records for file names when generating reports, but some of those have invalid characters. The attachment_fu plugin has the sanitize_filename method, but I wasn't so happy with the output, e.g., 

 
 >> sanitize_filename("foo & bar") 
=> "foo___bar" 
 >> sanitize_filename("14th @bar") 
=> "14th__bar"

 
So I wrote a prettier sanitization helper:

 
which gives me: 
 
 >> sanitize_for_filename(" foo & bar ") 
=> "foo_and_bar" 
 >> sanitize_for_filename("14th @bar") 
=> "14th_at_bar"

 
Much better.