Rails 4.0.0 to_time always fails after first error in try rescue block

Question

I am trying to parse a fingerprint reader's xml file using to_time using the following code. After the first error, every read is an error. There are many hundreds of correctly read entries before the error and many hundreds after the error which are also errors, even though the same format was previously correctly parsed. I'm guessing that the 12:03 AM string triggered the error.

attendances_file = params[:attendances_file].read

 doc = Nokogiri::XML(attendances_file) do |config|
        config.strict.nonet
      end

  attendances = doc.xpath("//ROW")

  attendances.each do |attendance|

  pin = attendance.get_attribute('Pin').to_i

     begin
      attendance_datetime = attendance.get_attribute('sTime').to_time

      logger.info pin.to_s
      logger.info attendance_datetime.to_s

      rescue      
      logger.info attendance.get_attribute('Pin')
      logger.info 'ERROR ' + attendance.get_attribute('sTime') 
      end

Here is a snippet from the xml file

<ROW Pin="138" Name="138" sTime="8/12/2013 8:14 PM" VerifyFlag="Fingerpint" MachineName="Office" Abnormite=""/>
<ROW Pin="142" Name="142" sTime="8/12/2013 8:14 PM" VerifyFlag="Fingerpint" MachineName="Office" Abnormite=""/>
<ROW Pin="163" Name="163" sTime="8/12/2013 8:16 PM" VerifyFlag="Fingerpint" MachineName="Office" Abnormite=""/>
<ROW Pin="103" Name="103" sTime="8/13/2013 12:03 AM" VerifyFlag="Fingerpint" MachineName="Office" Abnormite=""/>
<ROW Pin="101" Name="101" sTime="8/13/2013 12:03 AM" VerifyFlag="Fingerpint" MachineName="Office" Abnormite=""/>
<ROW Pin="401" Name="401" sTime="8/13/2013 12:36 AM" VerifyFlag="Fingerpint" MachineName="Office" Abnormite=""/>
<ROW Pin="505" Name="505" sTime="8/13/2013 2:17 AM" VerifyFlag="Fingerpint" MachineName="Office" Abnormite=""/>
<ROW Pin="321" Name="321" sTime="8/13/2013 2:35 AM" VerifyFlag="Fingerpint" MachineName="Office" Abnormite=""/>
<ROW Pin="322" Name="322" sTime="8/13/2013 2:35 AM" VerifyFlag="Fingerpint" MachineName="Office" Abnormite=""/>

Here is the same snippet from the log

138
2013-12-08 20:14:00 +0800

142
2013-12-08 20:14:00 +0800

163
2013-12-08 20:16:00 +0800

103
ERROR 8/13/2013 12:03 AM

101
ERROR 8/13/2013 12:03 AM

401
ERROR 8/13/2013 12:36 AM

505
ERROR 8/13/2013 2:17 AM

321
ERROR 8/13/2013 2:35 AM

322
ERROR 8/13/2013 2:35 AM

Answer 1

The "ERROR" is because String#time is throwing an ArgumentError for all the sTime values with middle value (ie 13 in the following string) greater than 12 (month):

8/13/2013 12:03 AM

So the solution here would be to use DateTime#strptime specifying your format as follows:

begin
  s_time = attendance.get_attribute('sTime')
  attendance_datetime = DateTime.strptime(s_time, "%m/%d/%Y %l:%M %p")
  ...
rescue
  ...
end