NAME
DateTime::Event::Predict - Predict new dates from a set of dates
SYNOPSIS
Given a set of dates this module will predict the next date or dates to
follow.
use DateTime::Event::Predict;
my $dtp = DateTime::Event::Predict->new(
profile => {
buckets => ['day_of_week'],
},
);
# Add today's date: 2009-12-17
my $date = new DateTime->today();
$dtp->add_date($date);
# Add the previous 14 days
for (1 .. 14) {
my $new_date = $date->clone->add(
days => ($_ * -1),
);
$dtp->add_date($new_date);
}
# Predict the next date
my $predicted_date = $dtp->predict;
print $predicted_date->ymd;
# 2009-12-18
Here we create a new "DateTime" object with today's date (it being
December 17th, 2009 currently). We then use add_date to add it onto the
list of dates that "DateTime::Event::Predict" (DTP) will use to make the
prediction.
Then we take the 14 previous days (December 16-2) and them on to same
list one by one. This gives us a good set to make a prediction out of.
Finally we call predict which returns a "DateTime" object representing
the date that DTP has calculated will come next.
HOW IT WORKS
Predicting the future is not easy, as anyone except, perhaps,
Nostradamus will tell you. Events can occur with perplexing randomness
and discerning any pattern in the noise is nigh unpossible.
However, if you have a set of data to work with that you know for
certain contains some sort of regularity, and you have enough
information to discover that regularity, then making predictions from
that set can be possible. The main issue with our example above is the
tuning we did with this sort of information.
When you configure your instance of DTP, you will have to tell what
sorts of date-parts to keep track of so that it has a good way of making
a prediction. Date-parts can be things like "day of the week", "day of
the year", "is a weekend day", "week on month", "month of year",
differences between dates counted by "week", or "month", etc. Dtpredict
will collect these identifiers from all the provided dates into
"buckets" for processing later on.
EXAMPLES
Predicting Easter
Predicting
METHODS
new
Constructor
my $dtp = DateTime::Event::Predict->new();
dates
Arguments: none | \@dates
Return value: \@dates
Called with no argument this method will return an arrayref to the list
of the dates currently in the instance.
Called with an arrayref to a list of DateTime objects ("\@dates") this
method will set the dates for this instance to "\@dates".
add_date
Arguments: $date
Return value:
Adds a date on to the list of dates in the instance, where $date is a
DateTime object.
profile
Arguments: $profile
Set the profile for which date-parts will be
# Pass in preset profile by name
$dtp->profile( profile => 'default' );
$dtp->profile( profile => 'holiday' );
# Create a new profile
my $profile = new DateTime::Event::Predict::Profile(
buckets => [qw/ minute hour day_of_week day_of_month /],
);
$dtp->profile( profile => $profile );
Provided profiles
The following profiles are provided for use by-name:
predict
Arguments: %options
Return Value: $next_date | @next_dates
Predict the next date(s) from the dates supplied.
my $predicted_date = $dtp->predict();
If list context "predict" returns a list of all the predictions, sorted
by their probability:
my @predicted_dates = $dtp->predict();
The number of prediction can be limited with the "max_predictions"
option.
Possible options
$dtp->predict(
max_predictions => 4, # Once 4 predictions are found, return back
callbacks => [
sub { return ($_->second % 4) ? 0 : 1 } # Only predict dates with second values that are divisible by four.
],
);
max_predictions
Maximum number of predictions to find.
callbacks
Arrayref of subroutine callbacks. If any of them return a false
value the date will not be returned as a prediction.
train
Train this instance of DTP
TODO
* It would be be cool if you could pass your own buckets in with a
certain type, so you could, say, look for recurrence based on
intervals of 6 seconds, or 18 days, whatever.
* We need to be able to handle recording more than one interval per
diff. If the dates are all offset from each other by 1 day 6 hours
(May 1, 3:00; May 2, 6:00), we can't be predicting a new date that's
exactly 1 day after the most recent one. ^ The best way to do this
is probably to record intervals as epoch seconds, so everything is
taken into account. Maybe record epoch seconds in addition to whole
regular intervals like days & hours.
AUTHOR
Brian Hann, "<brian.hann at gmail.com>"
BUGS
Please report any bugs or feature requests to
"bug-datetime-event-predict at rt.cpan.org", or through the web
interface at
<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=DateTime-Event-Predict>.
I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of
progress on your bug as I make changes.
SUPPORT
You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
perldoc DateTime::Event::Predict
You can also look for information at:
* RT: CPAN's request tracker
<http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=DateTime-Event-Predict>
* AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation
<http://annocpan.org/dist/DateTime-Event-Predict>
* CPAN Ratings
<http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/DateTime-Event-Predict>
* Search CPAN
<http://search.cpan.org/dist/DateTime-Event-Predict/>
COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
Copyright 2009 Brian Hann, all rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
SEE ALSO
DateTime, DateTime::Event::Predict::Profile