faker-ruby/faker · error · ArgumentError

invalid period

Error message

invalid period

What it means

Raised by the private hours helper in Faker::Time, reached from every public generator that takes period: — between_dates, forward, and backward — when period is not a key of TIME_RANGES. Valid symbols are exactly :all, :day, :night, :morning, :afternoon, :evening, :midnight; the lookup is a Hash key comparison, so strings ('morning'), symbols with typos (:morn), or synonyms like :dawn/:dusk/:noon raise ArgumentError.

Source

Thrown at lib/faker/default/time.rb:129

      #     #=> "14 Oct 07:44"
      #
      # @faker.version 1.5.0
      def backward(days: 365, period: :all, format: nil)
        time_with_format(date_with_random_time(Faker::Date.backward(days: days), period), format)
      end

      private

      def date_with_random_time(date, period)
        ::Time.local(date.year, date.month, date.day, hours(period), minutes, seconds)
      end

      def time_with_format(time, format)
        format.nil? ? time : I18n.localize(time, format: format)
      end

      def hours(period)
        raise ArgumentError, 'invalid period' unless TIME_RANGES.key? period

        sample(TIME_RANGES[period].to_a)
      end

      def minutes
        seconds
      end

      def seconds
        sample((0..59).to_a)
      end

      def get_time_object(time)
        time = ::Time.parse(time) if time.is_a? String
        time = time.to_time if time.respond_to?(:to_time)
        time
      end
    end

View on GitHub (pinned to cca4184947)

Solutions

1. Pass one of :all, :day, :night, :morning, :afternoon, :evening, :midnight as a Symbol.
2. Convert config/param strings: period: params[:period].to_sym (after whitelist-checking).
3. Pick the closest defined range for synonyms you want (e.g. use :morning for 'dawn' since it starts at 6h, or :midnight for 0..4).

Example fix

# before
Faker::Time.between_dates(from: from_d, to: to_d, period: params[:period]) # 'morning' String -> ArgumentError

# after
period = params[:period].presence&.to_sym || :all
Faker::Time.between_dates(from: from_d, to: to_d, period: period)

VALID_PERIODS = %i[all day night morning afternoon evening midnight].freeze
period = period.to_sym if period.is_a?(String)
period = :all unless VALID_PERIODS.include?(period)
Faker::Time.between_dates(from: from_d, to: to_d, period: period)

def valid_faker_period?(period)
  Faker::Time::TIME_RANGES.key?(period)
end

begin
  Faker::Time.forward(days: days, period: period)
rescue ArgumentError
  Faker::Time.forward(days: days) # default :all
end

When it happens

Trigger: Faker::Time.forward(days: 5, period: 'morning') (string instead of symbol), period: :dusk, or period: :am raises 'invalid period'; period: :morning or omitting period (defaults to :all) works. between_dates(from: ..., to: ..., period: :noon) raises too.

Common situations: Passing period values read from params/config where they arrive as strings; using natural synonyms (dawn/dusk) that TIME_RANGES does not define; copying the option name from another library (e.g. Date naming) rather than Faker's list.

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AI-assisted analysis of faker-ruby/faker@cca4184947 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a7907898edea3c0e. Report an issue: GitHub.