Rails: How to parse date-time string into a specific time zone

Try this:

zone = "Central Time (US & Canada)"  ActiveSupport::TimeZone[zone].parse("2013-04-03 17:47:00")

ruby-on-rails date timezone

Use `String#in_time_zone` (Rails 4+)

I personally prefer using String#in_time_zone:

>> '22.09.1986 10:30'.in_time_zone('Central Time (US & Canada)')# => Mon, 22 Sep 1986 10:30:00 CDT -05:00

This parses the date and time in the String into the time zone provided.

ruby-on-rails date timezone

%Z is the correct way to specify a Time zone name. Have you tried the following ?

date_and_time = '%m-%d-%Y %H:%M:%S %Z'DateTime.strptime("04-15-2010 10:00:00 Central Time (US & Canada)",date_and_time)