GT::Date - Common date parsing and manipulation routines
use GT::Date qw/:all/;
my $date = date_get();
my $next_week = date_add($date, 7);
my $is_bigger = date_is_greater($date, $next_week);
GT::Date provides several functions useful in parsing dates, and doing date manipulation. Under the hood, it uses Time::Local code to transform a date into seconds for comparison and mathematical operations. It also uses the GT::Cache manpage to store most of the complex work.
No functions are exported by default. You can either specify the functions you need in use, or use the tags ':all' or ':timelocal'. All will give you all functions, and timelocal will give you functions found in Time::Local.
GT::Date uses a package global $DATE_FMT which specifies
the format that dates should be returned in. You can change this using
the date_set_format() function.
Returns 1 if the argument passed in is a valid date. It must first be in the current date format, and then be a valid date.
Returns 1 if argument 1 is greater then argument 2, otherwise 0.
Returns 1 if argument 1 is smaller then argument 2, otherwise 0.
Called with no arguments, returns the current date based on system time. You can specify the date you want by passing in the seconds since epoch (output of time()).
Equivalent to arg1 <=> arg2.
Returns number of days difference between arg1 - arg2.
Returns date derived from arg1 + arg2, where the second argument can be either a date or number of days.
Returns date derived from arg1 - arg2, where the second argument can be either a date or number of days.
Takes the returned array from gmtime() and returns a unix time
stamp.
Takes the array returned by localtime() and returns a unix time
stamp.
Takes a string and a date format and returns an array ref of the first 7 arguments returned by localtime().
Takes a localtime array, and a format string and returns a string of the parsed format.
You can use date_set_format to change the format. You pass in a format string. It is made up of:
%yyyy% four digit year as in 1999
%yy% two digit year as in 99
%y% two digit year without leading 0
%mmmm% long month name as in January
%mmm% short month name as in Jan
%mm% numerical month name as in 01
%m% numerical month name without leading 0 as in 1
%dddd% long day name as in Sunday
%ddd% short day name as in Sun
%dd% numerical date
%d% numerical date without leading 0
%HH% two digit hour, 24 hour time
%H% one or two digit hour, 24 hour time
%hh% two digit hour, 12 hour time. 0 becomes 12.
%h% one or two digit hour, 12 hour time. 0 becomes 12.
%MM% two digit minute
%M% one or two digit minute (when would someone ever WANT this?)
%ss% two digit second
%s% one ot two digit second (when would someone ever WANT this?)
%tt% AM or PM (use with 12 hour time)
%o% + or - GMT offset
Common formats include:
%yyyy%-%mm%-%dd% 1999-12-25
%dd%-%mmm%-%yyyy% 12-Dec-1999
%ddd% %mmm% %dd% %yyyy% Sat Dec 12 1999
%ddd% %mmm% %dd% %yyyy% Sat Dec 12 1999
or RFC822 mime mail format:
%ddd%, %dd% %mmm% %yyyy% %HH%:%MM%:%ss% %o% Sat, 12, Dec 1999 21:32:02 -0800
or MySQL format:
%yyyy%-%mm%-%dd% %HH%:%MM%:%ss% 1999-03-25 21:32:02
The language used for month names and day names can be changed with
date_set_month(), date_set_days(), date_set_days_short() and
date_set_month_short().
You can transform a date from one format to another with:
date_transform ($date, $orig_fmt, $new_fmt);
where $orig_fmt and $new_fmt are date format strings described above.
You can get the number of seconds between the system time and GM time using:
my $time = date_gmt_offset();
So if you are in Pacific time, it would return 25200 seconds (-0700 time zone).
Get todays date, the default format unless specified is yyyy-mm-dd.
print date_get(); 2000-12-31
Get todays date in a different format:
date_set_format('%ddd% %mmm% %dd% %yyyy%');
print date_get(); Sat Dec 31 2000
Get the date from 1 week ago.
# Long way
my $date1 = date_get();
my $date2 = date_sub($date1, 7);
or
# Can pass in unix timestamp of date we want.
my $date = date_get (time - (7 * 86400));
Compare two dates.
my $halloween = '2000-10-31';
my $christmas = '2000-12-25';
if (date_is_smaller($halloween, $christmas)) {
print "Halloween comes before christmas!";
}
if (date_is_greater($christmas, $halloween)) {
print "Yup, christmas comes after halloween.";
}
my @dates = ($halloween, $christmas);
print "Dates in order: ", sort date_comp @dates;
Copyright (c) 2004 Gossamer Threads Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.gossamer-threads.com/
Revision: $Id: Date.pm,v 1.75 2005/04/04 22:21:23 brewt Exp $