How to send(“strftime('%Y/%m/%d')”) in rails 3.2.12? - ruby-on-rails

Question

We are trying to use send strftime('%Y/%m/%d') with a date object in our rails 3.2.12 app. Here is a test we did in rails console:
irb(main):014:0> b=User.offset(1).first
←[1m←[35mUser Load (1.0ms)←[0m SELECT "users".* FROM "users" LIMIT 1 OFFSET 1
=> #<User id: 2, login: "wsxl207", name: "?????", email: nil, encrypted_password: "55a48ac66ba164805d91dc5415455cd402e9c8b3a656620136a...", salt: "3ee
e529200bdcad3ed2f16a8749ede6f046130e2705714ab55d...", status: "active", user_type: "employee", input_by_id: 1, created_at: "2012-04-13 16:23:25", upda
ted_at: "2012-08-22 03:15:12">
irb(main):015:0> b.send('created_at').send("strftime('%Y/%m/%d')")
NoMethodError: undefined method `strftime('%Y/%m/%d')' for 2012-04-13 16:23:25 UTC:Time
from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/activesupport-3.2.12/lib/active_support/time_with_zone.rb:332:in `method_missing'
from (irb):15
from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/railties-3.2.12/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:47:in `start'
from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/railties-3.2.12/lib/rails/commands/console.rb:8:in `start'
from C:/Ruby193/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/railties-3.2.12/lib/rails/commands.rb:41:in `<top (required)>'
from script/rails:6:in `require'
from script/rails:6:in `<main>'
irb(main):016:0> b.send('created_at').strftime('%Y/%m/%d')
=> "2012/04/13"
However we found out that send does not work with strftime('%Y/%m/%d') with send("strftime('%Y/%m/%d')"). What we are missing here? Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

send take a method name (ideally as a symbol, though a string works, too) as its first arguments, and arguments for the method call as the remaining arguments. So I suppose what you're looking for is:
b.send(:created_at).send(:strftime, "%Y/%m/%d")
That said, if you're doing this explicitly in your code, you almost certainly want to just call created_at and strftime directly, rather than using the metaprogramming method send.