DateTime::Format::Flexible - DateTime::Format::Flexible - Flexibly parse strings and turn them into DateTime objects.
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
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.
This module uses DateTime::Format::Builder under the covers.
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
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
an alias for parse_datetime
A small list of supported formats:
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.
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.
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
Tom Heady <cpan@punch.net>
Copyright 2007-2011 Tom Heady.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either:
DateTime::Format::Builder, DateTime::Timezone, DateTime::Format::Natural
