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 );

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 2500+ variations that are detected correctly in the test files (see t/data/tests.txt 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

It also prefers the US format of MM-DD over the European DD-MM.

It also does not support timezones.

AUTHOR

    Tom Heady
    CPAN ID: thinc
    Punch, Inc.
    cpan@punch.net
    http://www.punch.net/

COPYRIGHT

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::Format::Natural

cpanm DateTime::Format::Flexible

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install DateTime::Format::Flexible