1Date::Manip(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Date::Manip(3)
2
6 Date::Manip - Date manipulation routines
7
9 Date::Manip is a series of modules designed to make any common
10 date/time operation easy to do. Operations such as comparing two
11 times, determining a date a given amount of time from another, or
12 parsing international times are all easily done. It deals with time as
13 it is used in the Gregorian calendar (the one currently in use) with
14 full support for time changes due to daylight saving time.
15 From the very beginning, the main focus of Date::Manip has been to be
17 able to do ANY desired date/time operation easily. Many other modules
18 exist which may do a subset of these operations quicker or more
19 efficiently, but no other module can do all of the operations available
20 in Date::Manip.
21 Since many other date/time modules exist, some of which may do the
23 specific operation(s) you need faster, be sure to read "SHOULD I USE
24 DATE::MANIP" in Date::Manip::Misc before deciding which of the Date and
25 Time modules from CPAN is for you. However, if you want one module to
26 do it all, Date::Manip is the one to use.
27 Date::Manip has functionality to work with several fundamental types of
29 data.
30 dates
32 The word date is used extensively here and is somewhat misleading.
33 In Date::Manip, a date consists of three pieces of information: a
34 calendar date, a time of day, and time zone information. Calendar
35 dates and times are fully handled. Time zones are handled as well,
36 but depending on how you use Date::Manip, there may be some
37 limitations as discussed below.
38 delta
40 A delta is an amount of time (i.e. the amount of time between two
41 different dates). A delta refers only to an amount of time. It
42 includes no information about a starting or ending date/time. Most
43 people will think of a delta as an amount of time, but the term
44 'time' is already used so much in this module that I didn't want to
45 use it here in order to avoid confusion.
46 recurrence
48 A recurring event is something which occurs on a regular recurring
49 basis.
50 holidays and events
52 Holidays and events are basically named dates or recurrences.
53 Among other things, Date::Manip allow you to:
55 * Enter a date in practically any format you choose.
57 * Compare two dates, entered in widely different formats to determine
59 which is earlier.
60 * Extract any information you want from a date using a format string
62 similar to the Unix date command.
63 * Determine the amount of time between two dates, or add an amount of
65 time to a date to get a second date.
66 * Work with dates with dates using international formats (foreign
68 month names, 12/10/95 referring to October rather than December,
69 etc.).
70 * To find a list of dates where a recurring event happens.
72 Each of these tasks is trivial (one or two lines at most) with this
74 package.
75
77 There are three different ways to use Date::Manip . There are three
78 interfaces (version 5 functional interface, version 6 functional, and
79 version 6 object-oriented). A complete description of each is included
80 in the Date::Manip::Interfaces document. The recommended (and the only
81 one with access to the full functionality of the module) is using the
82 Object-Oriented interface.
83
85 Because Date::Manip performs so many operations, the documentation is
86 extensive. It includes the following documents:
87 Information about the different interfaces
89 Read this for a detailed description of each of the interfaces,
90 including information on how to choose and use the interface best
91 suited to your situation.
92 Date::Manip::Interfaces
94 A complete description of the functional interfaces available.
95 NOTE: it is recommended that you use the OO interface wherever
96 possible as the functional interfaces have some imitations.
97 A description of the functional interfaces:
99 Date::Manip::DM5
100 The version 5 functional interface
101 Date::Manip::DM6
103 The version 6 functional interface
104 Objects and configuration
106 An introduction to the Date::Manip classes used by the object-oriented
107 interface and how to configure them:
108 Date::Manip::Objects
110 An overview of the various Date::Manip modules, and how to use
111 them.
112 Date::Manip::Config
114 Information for configuring Date::Manip
115 Date::Manip object-oriented modules
117 These are the modules for using the object-oriented interface.
118 Date::Manip::Obj
120 This is the base class. All other classes listed here inherit the
121 methods defined in this class.
122 Date::Manip::Base
124 A module for doing low-level date operations.
125 Date::Manip::TZ
127 A module for working with time zones.
128 Date::Manip::Date
130 The module for working with dates.
131 Date::Manip::Delta
133 The module for working with deltas (amount of time).
134 Date::Manip::Recur
136 The module for working with recurrences (recurring dates).
137 Timezone information
139 Date::Manip::DM5abbrevs
140 Time zone abbreviations used in the version 5 interface.
141 Date::Manip::Zones
143 Time zone data included in Date::Manip used in the version 6
144 interfaces.
145 Miscellaneous information:
147 Date::Manip::Calc
148 Detailed information on how date calculations are done.
149 Date::Manip::Holidays
151 Information on defining and using holidays and events.
152 Date::Manip::ConfigFile
154 A sample config file.
155 Date::Manip::Lang
157 Information about the languages supported by Date::Manip and how to
158 add a new language.
159 Date::Manip::Lang::english
161 Date::Manip::Lang::catalan
162 Date::Manip::Lang::danish
163 Date::Manip::Lang::dutch
164 Date::Manip::Lang::finnish
165 Date::Manip::Lang::french
166 Date::Manip::Lang::german
167 Date::Manip::Lang::italian
168 Date::Manip::Lang::norwegian
169 Date::Manip::Lang::polish
170 Date::Manip::Lang::portugue
171 Date::Manip::Lang::romanian
172 Date::Manip::Lang::russian
173 Date::Manip::Lang::spanish
174 Date::Manip::Lang::swedish
175 Date::Manip::Lang::turkish
176 A description of the parseable words in each language currently
177 supported by Date::Manip.
178 Information about the module and administrative things:
180 Date::Manip::Migration5to6
181 Information on changes necessary to scripts when upgrading from
182 5.xx to 6.xx.
183 Date::Manip::Changes5
185 Change log for Date::Manip 5.xx
186 Date::Manip::Changes5to6
188 Differences between version 5.xx and 6.00 (including information on
189 upgrading); this contains more details than the Migration5to6
190 document.
191 Date::Manip::Changes6
193 Change log for Date::Manip 6.xx
194 Date::Manip::Misc
196 Miscellaneous information about Date::Manip (who should use it;
197 acknowledgments).
198 Date::Manip::History
200 Musings on the history of Date::Manip written around it's 20th
201 birthday.
202 Date::Manip::Problems
204 Common problems and instructions for reporting bugs.
205 Date::Manip::Examples
207 Examples of how to use Date::Manip.
208
210 This script is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
211 under the same terms as Perl itself.
212
214 Sullivan Beck (sbeck@cpan.org)
215perl v5.26.3 2017-06-01 Date::Manip(3)