Elixir:
Parsing a date from a string

How to:

Elixir’s standard library, combined with the power of the Erlang :calendar module, provides basic support for parsing dates. For more complex needs, the Timex library is a popular choice, offering extensive features for working with dates, times, and timezones.

Using Elixir’s Standard Library

date_string = "2023-04-21"
{:ok, date} = Date.from_iso8601(date_string)
IO.inspect(date)  # => ~D[2023-04-21]

To parse a datetime string including time zone information, you might directly utilize Erlang functions, given that direct timezone handling isn’t part of Elixir’s standard Date module.

datetime_string = "2023-04-21T15:30:00Z"
{:ok, datetime, 0} = DateTime.from_iso8601(datetime_string)
IO.inspect(datetime)  # => #DateTime<2023-04-21 15:30:00Z>

Using Timex

First, add Timex to your mix.exs dependencies:

def deps do
  [
    {:timex, "~> 3.7"}
  ]
end

Then, run mix deps.get to fetch the new dependency.

Here is how you can use Timex to parse a date from a string:

import Timex

date_string = "April 21, 2023"
date = Timex.parse!(date_string, "{Mfull} {D}, {YYYY}")
IO.inspect(date)  # => ~N[2023-04-21 00:00:00]

Timex allows parsing various formats and even supports natural language dates, making it highly flexible for parsing dates and times from user input or external data sources.