I have a method which takes a DateTime (currently as a string) which i then convert to a DateTime object, for example:

```
def foo(time)
  the_time = Time.parse(time)
  ...
end

```

and so,

```
foo("2012-09-03")

```

I would like to also be able to parse a DateTime object:

```
foo(Time.now)

```

But `Time.parse` complains that I am not giving it a string:

```
NoMethodError: undefined method `gsub!' for 2012-08-08 15:59:00 UTC:Time

```

Is there an elegant (one line?) way to return a DateTime object from a string or DateTime object (i would prefer to avoid using if statements)

Thanks

Edit: Thanks for the comments - I have no real aversion to using an if statement, I was just seeing if there was anything nicer