DateTime::Format::FlexUser(Contributed Perl DocumDateTime::Format::Flexible(3)NAMEDateTime::Format::Flexible - DateTime::Format::Flexible - Flexibly
parse strings and turn them into DateTime objects.
SYNOPSIS
use DateTime::Format::Flexible;
my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime( 'January 8, 1999' );
# $dt = a DateTime object set at 1999-01-08T00:00:00
DESCRIPTION
If you have ever had to use a program that made you type in the date a
certain way and thought "Why can't the computer just figure out what
date I wanted?", this module is for you.
DateTime::Format::Flexible attempts to take any string you give it and
parse it into a DateTime object.
USAGE
This module uses DateTime::Format::Builder under the covers.
parse_datetime
Give it a string and it attempts to parse it and return a DateTime
object.
If it cannot it will throw an exception.
my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime( $date );
my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime(
$date,
strip => [qr{\.\z}], # optional, remove a trailing period
tz_map => {EDT => 'America/New_York'}, # optional, map the EDT timezone to America/New_York
lang => ['es'], # optional, only parse using spanish
european => 1 # optional, catch some cases of DD-MM-YY
);
· "base" (optional)
Does the same thing as the method "base". Sets a base datetime for
incomplete dates. Requires a valid DateTime object as an argument.
example:
my $base_dt = DateTime->new( year => 2005, month => 2, day => 1 );
my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime(
'18 Mar',
base => $base_dt
);
# $dt is now 2005-03-18T00:00:00
· "strip" (optional)
Remove a substring from the string you are trying to parse. You
can pass multiple regexes in an arrayref.
example:
my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime(
'2011-04-26 00:00:00 (registry time)' ,
strip => [qr{\(registry time\)\z}] ,
);
# $dt is now 2011-04-26T00:00:00
This is helpful if you have a load of dates you want to normalize
and you know of some weird formatting beforehand.
· "tz_map" (optional)
map a given timezone to another recognized timezone Values are
given as a hashref.
example:
my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime(
'25-Jun-2009 EDT' ,
tz_map => {EDT => 'America/New_York'}
);
# $dt is now 2009-06-25T00:00:00 with a timezone of America/New_York
This is helpful if you have a load of dates that have timezones
that are not recognized by DateTime::Timezone.
· "lang" (optional)
Specify the language map plugins to use.
When DateTime::Format::Flexible parses a date with a string in it,
it will search for a way to convert that string to a number. By
default it will search through all the language plugins to search
for a match.
Setting this lets you limit the scope of the search
example:
my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime(
'Wed, Jun 10, 2009' ,
lang => ['en']
);
# $dt is now 2009-06-10T00:00:00
Currently supported languages are english (en) and spanish (es).
Contributions, corrections, requests and examples are VERY welcome.
See the DateTime::Format::Flexible::lang::en and
DateTime::Dormat::Flexible::lang::es for examples of the plugins.
· "european" (optional)
If european is set to a true value, an attempt will be made to
parse as a DD-MM-YYYY date instead of the default MM-DD-YYYY.
There is a chance that this will not do the right thing due to
ambiguity.
example:
my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime(
'16/06/2010' , european => 1 ,
);
# $dt is now 2010-06-16T00:00:00
base
gets/sets the base DateTime for incomplete dates. Requires a valid
DateTime object as an argument when setting.
example:
DateTime::Format::Flexible->base( DateTime->new( year => 2009, month => 6, day => 22 ) );
my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime( '23:59' );
# $dt is now 2009-06-22T23:59:00
build
an alias for parse_datetime
Example formats
A small list of supported formats:
YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS
YYYYMMDDTHHMM
YYYYMMDDTHH
YYYYMMDD
YYYYMM
MM-DD-YYYY
MM-D-YYYY
MM-DD-YY
M-DD-YY
YYYY/DD/MM
YYYY/M/DD
YYYY/MM/D
M-D
MM-D
M-D-Y
Month D, YYYY
Mon D, YYYY
Mon D, YYYY HH:MM:SS
...
there are 9000+ variations that are detected correctly in the test
files (see t/data/* for most of them). If you can think of any that I
do not cover, please let me know.
NOTES
As of version 0.11 you will get a DateTime::Infinite::Future object if
the passed in date is 'infinity' and a DateTime::Infinite::Past object
if the passed in date is '-infinity'. If you are expecting these types
of strings, you might want to check for 'is_infinite()' from the object
returned.
example:
my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime( 'infinity' );
if ( $dt->is_infinite )
{
# you have a Infinite object.
}
The DateTime website http://datetime.perl.org/?Modules as of february
2010 lists this module under 'Confusing' and recommends the use of
DateTime::Format::Natural.
Unfortunately I do not agree. DateTime::Format::Natural fails more
than 2000 of my parsing tests. DateTime::Format::Flexible supports
different types of date/time strings than DateTime::Format::Natural. I
think there is utility in that can be found in both of them.
The whole goal of DateTime::Format::Flexible is to accept just about
any crazy date/time string that a user might care to enter.
DateTime::Format::Natural seems to be a little stricter in what it can
parse.
BUGS/LIMITATIONS
You cannot use a 1 or 2 digit year as the first field unless the year
is > 31:
YY-MM-DD # not supported if YY is <= 31
Y-MM-DD # not supported
It gets confused with MM-DD-YY
AUTHOR
Tom Heady <cpan@punch.net>
COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
Copyright 2007-2010 Tom Heady.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of either:
· the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any
later version, or
· the Artistic License version 2.0.
SEE ALSO
DateTime::Format::Builder, DateTime::Timezone,
DateTime::Format::Natural
perl v5.14.1 2010-03-10 DateTime::Format::Flexible(3)
