title: Ruby - I need to convert string into a timestamp
body: <p>I need to convert a string that represents a date to a timestamp object in Ruby.</p>
  
  <p>For example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>   date_string = "18-Feb-2016 09:01:04"
  
     convert to a timestamp like so
  
     2016-02-18 14:01:04
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I need to save this to a mysql database were the column is type timestamp.</p>
  
  <p>I have researched this for most of the day and can not find a solution.  I know you can use Time.parse but that includes timezone and DateTime.parse().to_time includes the timezone.  Since it has to be a timestamp i can not use strftime method.</p>
  
  <p>I need the time to be included because it will be used for calculation purposes.</p>
  
  <p>Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>
  
  <p>Thank you</p>