Date::Extract - extract probable dates from strings
Version 0.03 released 12 May 08
my $parser = Date::Extract->new();
my $dt = $parser->extract($arbitrary_text)
or die "No date found.";
return $dt->ymd;
There are already a few modules for getting a date out of a string. DateTime::Format::Natural should be your first choice. There's also Time::ParseDate which fits some very specific formats. Finally, you can coerce Date::Manip to do your bidding.
But I needed something that will take an arbitrary block of text, search it for something that looks like a date string, and build a DateTime object out of it. This module fills this niche. By design it will produce few false positives. This means it will not catch nearly everything that looks like a date string. So if you have the string "do homework for class 2019" it won't return a DateTime object with the year set to 2019.
Date::ExtractForces a particular time zone to be set (this actually matters, as "Tuesday" on Monday at 11 PM means something different than "Tuesday" on Tuesday at 1 AM).
By default it will use the "floating" time zone. See the documentation for DateTime.
This controls both the input time zone and output time zone.
This argument decides what happens when an ambiguous date appears in the input. For example, "Friday" may refer to any number of Fridays. The valid options for this argument are:
If the text has multiple possible dates, then this argument determines which date will be returned. By default it's 'first'.
Returns the first date found in the string.
Returns the final date found in the string.
Returns the date found in the string that chronologically precedes any other date in the string.
Returns the date found in the string that chronologically follows any other date in the string.
Returns all dates found in the string, in the order they were found in the strong.
Returns all dates found in the string, in chronological order.
This method will combine the arguments of parser->new and extract. Modify the "to" hash directly.
DateTimesTakes an arbitrary amount of text and extracts one or more dates from it. The return value will be zero or more DateTime objects. If called in scalar context, only one will be returned, even if the returns argument specifies multiple possible return values.
See the documentation of new for the configuration of this method. Any arguments passed into this method will trump those from the parser.
You may reuse a parser for multiple calls to extract.
You do not need to have an instantiated Date::Extract object to call this method. Just Date::Extract->extract($foo) will work.
This module is intentionally very simple. Surprises are not welcome here.
DateTime::Format::Natural, Time::ParseDate, Date::Manip
Shawn M Moore, <sartak at gmail.com>
No known bugs at this point.
Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-date-extract at rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Date-Extract. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.
You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.
perldoc Date::Extract
You can also look for information at:
Thanks to Steven Schubiger for writing the fine DateTime::Format::Natural. We still use it, but it doesn't quite fill all the particular needs we have.
Copyright 2007-2008 Best Practical Solutions.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
