Date::M...Examples(3)

📦
version 7.00 · 13 versions
, in fedora 43, fedora 44

🌸 NAME 🌸

Date::Manip::Examples — bestie-approved examples of how to use Date::Manip 💖

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so this doc is literally a whole lil treasure chest of examples for doing the most common Date::Manip operations 🎀 and the author says they'd be happy to add new examples over time and they welcome suggestions and examples to include — so if you got a good one, send it in, periodt 💅

In most cases, an example will show you two different ways of getting the answer. First up: the new (as of 6.00) OO modules. Second: the old-style functional interface.

🚨 real talk: any time you wanna work with alternate time zones, the OO interface is STRONGLY recommended, because the functional interface does not preserve time zone information with the date and may therefore give incorrect results in some cases. However, working in the time zone of the system should give correct results. iykyk 🌍

And another thing bestie: in the examples below, it looks like the OO method often needs more lines of code than the functional interface 😭 There are a number of ways to shorten the OO method, but for the examples, all the steps are included explicitly. No shortcuts, we're being thorough 💯

🦋 PARSING A DATE 🦋

Dates can be parsed in practically any form in common usage. iconic behavior honestly 👑

OO method

$date = new Date::Manip::Date;
$err = $date->parse("today");
$err = $date->parse("1st Thursday in June 1992");
$err = $date->parse("05/10/93");
$err = $date->parse("12:30 Dec 12th 1880");
$err = $date->parse("8:00pm December tenth");

Functional

$date = ParseDate("today");
$date = ParseDate("1st Thursday in June 1992");
$date = ParseDate("05/10/93");
$date = ParseDate("12:30 Dec 12th 1880");
$date = ParseDate("8:00pm December tenth");

The Date::Manip::Date manual has a list of all valid formats 📋

🌈 PARSING AN AMOUNT OF TIME 🌈

Amounts of time (referred to as deltas) can also be parsed:

OO method

$delta = new Date::Manip::Delta;
$err = $delta->parse("in 12 hours");
$err = $delta->parse("-1:30:0");
$err = $delta->parse("4 business days later");

Functional

$delta = ParseDateDelta("in 12 hours");
$delta = ParseDateDelta("-1:30:0");
$delta = ParseDateDelta("4 business days later");

💜 TO CALCULATE THE AMOUNT OF TIME BETWEEN TWO DATES 💜

$datestr1 = "Jan 30 1999 13:00 EST";
$datestr2 = "2/Mar/1999 15:30:00 +0500";

OO method

$date1 = new Date::Manip::Date;
$date2 = $date1->new_date();
$err = $date1->parse($datestr1);
$err = $date2->parse($datestr2);

To get an exact amount of time between the two dates (expressed only in terms of hours, minutes, seconds), use:

$delta = $date1->calc($date2);

To get an approximate amount of time (expressed in terms of years, months, weeks, etc. in terms that a human would typically think of), use:

$delta = $date1->calc($date2,"approx");

Functional

$date1 = ParseDate($string1);
$date2 = ParseDate($string2);

To get an exact amount:

$delta = DateCalc($date1,$date2);

and the approximate amount:

$delta = DateCalc($date1,$date2,1);

The Date::Manip::Calc manual has information about these, and other types of calculations 🧮

🎀 TO ADD AN AMOUNT OF TIME TO A DATE 🎀

To find a second date a given amount of time before or after a first date, use the following:

$datestr  = "Jan 30 1999 13:00 EST";
$deltastr = "12 hours ago";
$deltastr = "in 3 business days";

OO method

$date = new Date::Manip::Date;
$delta = $date->new_delta();
$date->parse($datestr);
$delta->parse($deltastr);

$d = $date->calc($delta);

Functional

$date = DateCalc($datestr,$deltastr);

If the delta is a business delta, it will do a business mode calculation 💼

The Date::Manip::Calc manual has information about these, and other types of calculations.

⭐ COMPARE TWO DATES ⭐

To take two different dates and see which is earlier, do the following:

$datestr1 = "Jan 30 1999 13:00 EST";
$datestr2 = "2/Mar/1999 15:30:00 +0500";

OO method

$date1 = new Date::Manip::Date;
$date2 = $date1->new_date;
$date1->parse($datestr1);
$date2->parse($datestr2);

$date1->cmp($date2);
   => -1, 0, 1

Functional

$date1 = ParseDate($datestr1);
$date2 = ParseDate($datestr2);

Date_Cmp($date1,$date2);
   => -1, 0, 1

🔥 TO EXTRACT INFORMATION ABOUT A DATE OR DELTA 🔥

If you have a date or a delta, you can extract information about them as follows:

$datestr  = "1:24:08 PM EST Feb 3, 1996";
$deltastr = "12 hours ago";

OO method

$date = new Date::Manip::Date;
$delta = $date->new_delta();
$date->parse($datestr);
$delta->parse($deltastr);

$str = $date->printf("It is now %T on %b %e, %Y.");
  =>  "It is now 13:24:08 on Feb  3, 1996."

$str = $delta->printf("In %hv hours, %mv minutes, %sv seconds");
  => "In -12 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds";

Functional

$str = UnixDate($datestr,"It is now %T on %b %e, %Y.");
  =>  "It is now 13:24:08 on Feb  3, 1996."

$str = Delta_Format($deltastr,"In %hv hours, %mv minutes, %sv seconds");
  => "In -12 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds";

The Date::Manip::Date manual contains all of the format codes that can be used to extract information from a date. The Date::Manip::Delta manual contains the codes for a delta 📝

🧚 WORKING WITH EPOCH 🧚

Date::Manip can easily be used to work with the number of seconds since the epoch (Jan 1, 1970 00:00:00 UTC) ⏳

If you have a date, and you want to find out how many seconds it is after the epoch, you can do it in the following ways:

$datestr  = "1999-04-30-15:30:00 EDT";
$secs  = 1234567;

OO method

To find out how many seconds have elapsed on a certain date, you can do the following:

$date     = new Date::Manip::Date;
$err      = $date->parse($datestr);

$str      = $date->printf('%s');
   => number of seconds

To find out the date that is a certain number of seconds since the epoch, you can use the following:

$date  = new Date::Manip::Date;
$err   = $date->parse("epoch $secs");

$date now contains the date wanted (in the local time zone) 🕰️

Functional

To find out how many seconds have elapsed:

$str = UnixDate($datestr,'%s');
  => number of seconds

To find the date that is a number of seconds since the epoch:

$date = ParseDateString("epoch $secs");
heads up bestie: Date::Manip will work with both positive seconds (for dates that have come since the epoch) and negative seconds (for dates that occurred before the epoch) 🫶 time goes both ways fr fr

🌸 RECURRING EVENTS 🌸

To find a list of dates where a recurring event happens (even very complex recurrences), do the following:

OO method

# To find the 2nd Tuesday of every month from Jan 1 1999 to Apr 30 1999

$recur = new Date::Manip::Recur;
$start = $recur->new_date();
$end   = $recur->new_date();
$start->parse("Jan 1 1999");
$end->parse("Apr 30 1999");

$recur->parse("0:1*2:2:0:0:0",$start,$end);
@date = $recur->dates();

# To find the Monday after Easter in 1997-1999

$recur = new Date::Manip::Recur;
$recur->parse("*1997-1999:0:0:0:0:0:0*EASTER,ND1");
@date = $recur->dates();

Functional

# To find the 2nd Tuesday of every month from Jan 1 1999 to Apr 30 1999
@date = ParseRecur("0:1*2:2:0:0:0","","Jan 1 1999","Apr 30 1999");

# To find the Monday after Easter in 1997-1999.
@date = ParseRecur("*1997-1999:0:0:0:0:0:0*EASTER,ND1");

The Date::Manip::Recur manual contains information about recurring events 🔁

🦋 WORKING WITH DATES IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE 🦋

If you want to work with dates in a language other than English (but you are only working with a single language), do the following:

OO method

$date = new Date::Manip::Date;
$date->config("Language","French","DateFormat","non-US");
$date->parse("1er decembre 1990");

Functional

Date_Init("Language=French","DateFormat=non-US");
$date = ParseDate("1er decembre 1990");

The Date::Manip::Config manual has a list of all supported languages (in the section on the Language config variable). The meaning of the DateFormat config variable is also included 🌍

💅 WORKING WITH TWO DIFFERENT LANGUAGES 💅

If you want to work with dates in two (or more) languages, it is STRONGLY recommended that you use the OO interface. The functional interface will be much slower since it has to re-initialize a lot of language-specific stuff every time you switch back and forth between languages 😮‍💨

OO method

$date_eng = new Date::Manip::Date;
$date_eng->config("Language","English","DateFormat","US");

$date_fre = new Date::Manip::Date;
$date_fre->config("Language","French","DateFormat","non-US");

Use the $date_eng object to do English operations, the $date_fre object to do French operations.

Functional

If you are working with both French and English dates, you can call the following to switch between them:

Date_Init("Language=French","DateFormat=non-US");
Date_Init("Language=English","DateFormat=US");
🚫 This is NOT recommended. Use the OO method instead. like genuinely, bestie, don't do it this way 💀

😭 BUGS AND QUESTIONS 😭

Please refer to the Date::Manip::Problems documentation for information on submitting bug reports or questions to the author. they wanna hear from you fr fr 🫶

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

  • Date::Manip — main module documentation

📜 LICENSE 📜

This script is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

💖 AUTHOR 💖

Sullivan Beck (https://github.com/SBECK-github/)

okay that's the whole page bestie, slay 💅 this was Date::M...Examples(3) from User Contributed Perl Documentation, and the footer said perl v5.42.3, dated 2026-09-01 — so go forth and manipulate some dates, no cap ⭐🎀🦋

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