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NAME
DateTime::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.
The test file tests 2500+ variations of date/time strings. If you can
think of any that I do not cover, please let me know.
USAGE
This module uses DateTime::Format::Builder under the covers.
build, parse_datetime
build and parse_datetime do the same thing. Give it a string and it
attempts to parse it and return a DateTime object.
If it can't it will throw an exception.
my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->build( $date );
my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime( $date );
my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime(
$date,
strip => [qr{\.\z}],
tz_map => {EDT => 'America/New_York'},
european => 1
);
* "strip"
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"
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.
* "european"
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
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).
NOTES
The DateTime website http://datetime.perl.org/?Modules as of march 2008
lists this module under 'Confusing' and recommends the use of
DateTime::Format::Natural.
Unfortunately I do not agree. DateTime::Format::Natural currently 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
You cannot use a 1 or 2 digit year as the first field:
YY-MM-DD # not supported
Y-MM-DD # not supported
It would get confused with MM-DD-YY
AUTHOR
Tom Heady
CPAN ID: thinc
Punch, Inc.
cpan@punch.net
http://www.punch.net/
COPYRIGHT and LICENSE
Copyright 2007-2009 Tom Heady
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included
with this module.
SEE ALSO
DateTime::Format::Builder, DateTime::Timezone, DateTime::Format::Natural
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