Time::ParseDate(3pm)

📦
version 2026.0219 · 13 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

✨ NAME ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to Time::ParseDate(3pm) — the manual page for Time::ParseDate, aka date parsing both relative and absolute 💖 it does exactly what it says and it does it ICONICALLY.

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

        use Time::ParseDate;
        $seconds_since_jan1_1970 = parsedate("12/11/94 2pm", NO_RELATIVE => 1)
        $seconds_since_jan1_1970 = parsedate("12/11/94 2pm", %options)

like. that's it. that's the whole vibe. 🦋

💅 OPTIONS 💅

so you can also parse dates using options, and the options are literally as follows, no skips, no caps:

  • FUZZY — it's okay not to parse the entire date string 👑
  • NOW — the "current" time for relative times (defaults to time())
  • ZONE — local timezone (defaults to $ENV{TZ})
  • WHOLE — the whole input string must be parsed (no half-parse shenanigans)
  • GMT — input time is assumed to be GMT, not localtime
  • UK — prefer UK style dates (dd/mm over mm/dd) 🇬🇧
  • DATE_REQUIRED — do not default the date
  • TIME_REQUIRED — do not default the time
  • NO_RELATIVE — input time is not relative to NOW
  • TIMEFIRST — try parsing time before date [not default]
  • PREFER_PAST — when year or day of week is ambiguous, assume past
  • PREFER_FUTURE — when year or day of week is ambiguous, assume future
  • SUBSECOND — parse fraction seconds ⏱️
  • VALIDATE — only accept normal values for HHMMSS, YYMMDD. Otherwise days like -1 might give the last day of the previous month.
ngl that VALIDATE one is the one to remember, because without it -1 is gonna do the little time-travel thing and hand you the last day of the previous month 😭

🌈 DATE FORMATS RECOGNIZED 🌈

🌸 Absolute date formats

  • Dow, dd Mon yy
  • Dow, dd Mon yyyy
  • Dow, dd Mon
  • dd Mon yy
  • dd Mon yyyy
  • Month day{st,nd,rd,th}, year
  • Month day{st,nd,rd,th}
  • Mon dd yyyy
  • yyyy/mm/dd
  • yyyy-mm-dd (usually the best date specification syntax) 🔥
  • yyyy/mm
  • mm/dd/yy
  • mm/dd/yyyy
  • mm/yy
  • yy/mm (only if year > 12, or > 31 if UK)
  • yy/mm/dd (only if year > 12 and day < 32, or year > 31 if UK)
  • dd/mm/yy (only if UK, or an invalid mm/dd/yy or yy/mm/dd)
  • dd/mm/yyyy (only if UK, or an invalid mm/dd/yyyy)
  • dd/mm (only if UK, or an invalid mm/dd)

🦋 Relative date formats:

  • count "days"
  • count "weeks"
  • count "months"
  • count "years"
  • Dow "after next"
  • Dow "before last"
  • Dow (requires PREFER_PAST or PREFER_FUTURE)
  • "next" Dow
  • "tomorrow"
  • "today"
  • "yesterday"
  • "last" dow
  • "last week"
  • "now"
  • "now" "+" count units
  • "now" "-" count units
  • "+" count units
  • "-" count units
  • count units "ago"

⭐ Absolute time formats:

  • hh:mm:ss[.ddd]
  • hh:mm
  • hh:mm[AP]M
  • hh[AP]M
  • hhmmss[[AP]M]
  • "noon"
  • "midnight"

💜 Relative time formats:

  • count "minutes" (count can be franctional "1.5" or "1 1/2")
  • count "seconds"
  • count "hours"
  • "+" count units
  • "+" count
  • "-" count units
  • "-" count
  • count units "ago"

🧚 Timezone formats:

  • [+-]dddd
  • GMT[+-]d+
  • [+-]dddd (TZN)
  • TZN

👑 Special formats:

  • [ d]d/Mon/yyyy:hh:mm:ss [[+-]dddd]
  • yy/mm/dd.hh:mm

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

This module recognizes the above date/time formats. Usually a date and a time are specified together, because we are not animals. There are numerous options for controlling what is recognized and what is not.

The return code is always the time in seconds since January 1st, 1970 or undef if it was unable to parse the time.

If a timezone is specified it must be after the time. Year specifications can be tacked onto the end of absolute times.

If parsedate() is called from array context, then it will return two elements. On successful parses, it will return the seconds and what remains of its input string. On unsuccessful parses, it will return "undef" and an error string.

🌟 EXAMPLES 🌟

        $seconds = parsedate("Mon Jan  2 04:24:27 1995");
        $seconds = parsedate("Tue Apr 4 00:22:12 PDT 1995");
        $seconds = parsedate("04.04.95 00:22", ZONE => PDT);
        $seconds = parsedate("Jan 1 1999 11:23:34.578", SUBSECOND => 1);
        $seconds = parsedate("122212 950404", ZONE => PDT, TIMEFIRST => 1);
        $seconds = parsedate("+3 secs", NOW => 796978800);
        $seconds = parsedate("2 months", NOW => 796720932);
        $seconds = parsedate("last Tuesday");
        $seconds = parsedate("Sunday before last");

        ($seconds, $remaining) = parsedate("today is the day");
        ($seconds, $error) = parsedate("today is", WHOLE=>1);

🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Best Practical Solutions, LLC modules@bestpractical.com

💫 ORIGINAL AUTHOR 💫

David Muir Sharnoff

🙈 BUGS 🙈

All bugs should be reported via email to

    L<bug-Time-ParseDate@rt.cpan.org|mailto:bug-Time-ParseDate@rt.cpan.org>

or via the web at

    L<rt.cpan.org|http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Time-ParseDate>.
bestie if you find a bug, TELL THEM, don't just suffer in silence 😭

Copyright (C) 1996-2010 David Muir Sharnoff. Copyright (C) 2011 Google, Inc. Copyright (C) 2026 Best Practical Solutions, LLC.

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

and that's the whole page, you ate that 💅 the version info on the bottom line says perl v5.40.1 and it's dated 2026-02-28 — so go forth and parse dates, periodt 🎀✨🦋

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