DateTime::Format::Natural(3)

NAME
DateTime::Format::Natural - Create machine readable date/time with natural parsing logic

SYNOPSIS
 use DateTime::Format::Natural;

 $parser = DateTime::Format::Natural->new;

 $dt = $parser->parse_datetime($date_string);
 @dt = $parser->parse_datetime_duration($date_string);

 if ($parser->success) {
     # operate on $dt/@dt, for example:
     printf("%02d.%02d.%4d %02d:%02d:%02d\n", $dt->day,
                                              $dt->month,
                                              $dt->year,
                                              $dt->hour,
                                              $dt->min,
                                              $dt->sec);
 } else {
     warn $parser->error;
 }

DESCRIPTION
"DateTime::Format::Natural" takes a string with a human readable date/time and creates a machine readable one by applying natural parsing logic.

CONSTRUCTOR

  new
Creates a new "DateTime::Format::Natural" object. Arguments to "new()" are options and not necessarily required.

 $parser = DateTime::Format::Natural->new(
           lang          => 'en',
           format        => 'mm/dd/yy',
           prefer_future => '[0|1]'
           time_zone     => 'floating',
           daytime       => { morning   => 06,
                              afternoon => 13,
                              evening   => 20,
                            },
 );

•   "lang"

    Contains the language selected, currently limited to "en" (english). Defaults to '"en"'.

•   "format"

    Specifies the format of numeric dates, defaults to '"d/m/y"'.

•   "prefer_future"

    Turns ambiguous weekdays/months to their futuristic relatives. Accepts a boolean, defaults to false.

•   "time_zone"

    The time zone to use when parsing and for output. Accepts any time zone recognized by DateTime. Defaults to 'floating'.

•   "daytime"

    A hash reference consisting of customized daytime hours, which may be selectively changed.

METHODS

  parse_datetime
Creates a "DateTime" object from a human readable date/time string.

 $dt = $parser->parse_datetime($date_string);
 $dt = $parser->parse_datetime(string => $date_string);

•   "string"

    The date string.

Returns a DateTime object.

  parse_datetime_duration
Creates one or more "DateTime" object(s) from a human readable date/time string which may contain timespans/durations. 'Same' interface & options as "parse_datetime()", but must be explicitly called in list context.

 @dt = $parser->parse_datetime_duration($date_string);
 @dt = $parser->parse_datetime_duration(string => $date_string);

  success
Returns a boolean indicating success or failure for parsing the date/time string given.

  error
Returns the error message if the parsing did not succeed.

  trace
Returns a trace of methods which were called within the Base class and a summary how often certain units have been modified.

GRAMMAR
The grammar handling has been rewritten to be easily extendable and hence everybody is encouraged to propose sensible new additions and/or changes.

See the classes "DateTime::Format::Natural::Lang::[language_code]" if you're intending to hack a bit on the grammar guts.

EXAMPLES
See the classes "DateTime::Format::Natural::Lang::[language_code]" for a overview of current valid input.

CREDITS
Thanks to Tatsuhiko Miyagawa for the initial inspiration. See Miyagawa's journal entry <http://use.perl.org/~miyagawa/journal/31378> for more information.

Furthermore, thanks to (in order of appearance) who have contributed valuable suggestions & patches:

 Clayton L. Scott
 Dave Rolsky
 CPAN Author 'SEKIMURA'
 mike (pulsation)
 Mark Stosberg
 Tuomas Jormola
 Cory Watson
 Urs Stotz
 Shawn M. Moore
 Andreas J. Koenig
 Chia-liang Kao
 Jonny Schulz
 Jesse Vincent
 Jason May
 Pat Kale
 Ankur Gupta
 Alex Bowley
 Elliot Shank
 Anirvan Chatterjee
 Michael Reddick
 Christian Brink

SEE ALSO
DateTime, Date::Calc, <http://datetime.perl.org>

AUTHOR
Steven Schubiger <schubiger@cpan.org>

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

See <http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html>