DateTime.parse
is a very useful method which construct a DateTime from a string, guessing its format.
DateTime.parse('Jun, 8 2016')
# => #<DateTime: 2016-06-08T00:00:00+00:00 ((2457548j,0s,0n),+0s,2299161j)>
DateTime.parse('201603082330')
# => #<DateTime: 2016-03-08T23:30:00+00:00 ((2457456j,84600s,0n),+0s,2299161j)>
DateTime.parse('04-11-2016 03:50')
# => #<DateTime: 2016-11-04T03:50:00+00:00 ((2457697j,13800s,0n),+0s,2299161j)>
DateTime.parse('04-11-2016 03:50 -0300')
# => #<DateTime: 2016-11-04T03:50:00-03:00 ((2457697j,24600s,0n),-10800s,2299161j)
Note: There are lots of other formats that parse
recognizes.