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( datetime => DateTime->new(...), lang => 'en', format => 'mm/dd/yy', prefer_future => '[0|1]', time_zone => 'floating', daytime => { morning => 06, afternoon => 13, evening => 20, }, ); * `datetime' Overrides the present now with a DateTime object provided. * `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' An anonymous hash reference consisting of customized daytime hours, which may be selectively changed. METHODS parse_datetime Returns a DateTime object constructed from a human readable date/time string. $dt = $parser->parse_datetime($date_string); $dt = $parser->parse_datetime(string => $date_string); * `string' The date string. parse_datetime_duration Returns one or more DateTime object(s) constructed from a human readable date/time string which may contain timespans/durations. *Same* interface and options as `parse_datetime()', but should 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 currently 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 and patches: Clayton L. Scott Dave Rolsky CPAN Author 'SEKIMURA' mike (pulsation) Mark Stosberg Tuomas Jormola Cory Watson Urs Stotz Shawn M. Moore Andreas J. König Chia-liang Kao Jonny Schulz Jesse Vincent Jason May Pat Kale Ankur Gupta Alex Bowley Elliot Shank Anirvan Chatterjee Michael Reddick Christian Brink Giovanni Pensa Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp SEE ALSO DateTime, Date::Calc, http://datetime.perl.org AUTHOR Steven Schubiger LICENSE This program is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/