NAME

PlotCalendar::DateDesc - Perl extension for interpreting a file of periodic (like weekly) events and assigning actual dates to them. Used to feed the calendar plotting software.

SYNOPSIS

  require PlotCalendar::DateDesc;

  my ($month, $year) = (3,1999);

    # ----    set the month and year
  my $trans = PlotCalendar::DateDesc->new($month, $year);

    # ----    parse a description and return the day of the month
    my $day = 'first monday and third monday';
   print "$day : ",join(',',@{$trans->getdom($day)}),"\n";

   $day = 'last monday and third monday';
   print "$day : ",join(',',@{$trans->getdom($day)}),"\n";

   $day = 'last fri and third Monday';
   print "$day : ",join(',',@{$trans->getdom($day)}),"\n";

    # ----    parse a description and return the date as mm/dd/yyyy
   $day = 'last fri and third Monday';
    print "$day dates: ", join(',',@{$trans->getdates($day)}),"\n";

    What gets returned by both routines is a pointer to an array of answers
  

DESCRIPTION

    input descriptions may be one of :
    a day of the week (monday, tuesday, etc)
    a qualified day of the week (first monday, second tuesday, last sunday)
    compound statements are allowed : mon and wed, first mon and third mon

    Qualifiers are : first, second, third, fourth, fifth, last
    Compounds are only formed with 'and' and are not associative

AUTHOR

    Alan Jackson
    March 1999
    ajackson@icct.net

SEE ALSO

PlotCalendar::Month PlotCalendar::Day