phpman > man > Date::Manip

NAME
    Date::Manip - Date manipulation routines

DESCRIPTION
    Date::Manip is a series of modules designed to make any common date/time operation easy to do.
    Operations such as comparing two times, determining a date a given amount of time from another,
    or parsing international times are all easily done. It deals with time as it is used in the
    Gregorian calendar (the one currently in use) with full support for time changes due to daylight
    saving time.

    From the very beginning, the main focus of Date::Manip has been to be able to do ANY desired
    date/time operation easily. Many other modules exist which may do a subset of these operations
    quicker or more efficiently, but no other module can do all of the operations available in
    Date::Manip.

    Date::Manip has functionality to work with several fundamental types of data.

    dates
        The word date is used extensively here and is somewhat misleading. In Date::Manip, a date
        consists of three pieces of information: a calendar date (year, month, day), a time of day
        (hour, minute, second), and time zone information. Calendar dates and times are fully
        handled. Time zones are handled as well, but depending on how you use Date::Manip, there may
        be some limitations as discussed below.

    delta
        A delta is an amount of time (i.e. the amount of time between two different dates). Think of
        it as the duration of an event or the amount of time between two dates.

        A delta refers only to an amount of time. It includes no information about a starting or
        ending date/time. Most people will think of a delta as an amount of time, but the term
        'time' is already used so much in this module that I didn't want to use it here in order to
        avoid confusion.

    recurrence
        A recurring event is something which occurs on a regular recurring basis.

    holidays and events
        Holidays and events are basically named dates or recurrences.

    Among other things, Date::Manip allow you to:

    *   Enter a date in practically any format you choose.

    *   Compare two dates, entered in widely different formats to determine which is earlier.

    *   Extract any information you want from a date using a format string similar to the Unix date
        command.

    *   Determine the amount of time between two dates, or add an amount of time (a delta) to a date
        to get a second date.

    *   Work with dates using international formats (foreign month names, 12/10/95 referring to
        October rather than December, etc.).

    *   Convert dates from one timezone to another.

    *   To find a list of dates where a recurring event happens.

    Each of these tasks is trivial (one or two lines at most) with this package.

HOW TO USE DATE::MANIP
    There are three different ways to use Date::Manip . There are three interfaces (version 5
    functional interface, version 6 functional, and version 6 object-oriented). A complete
    description of each is included in the Date::Manip::Interfaces document. The recommended (and
    the only one with access to the full functionality of the module) is using the Object-Oriented
    interface.

SEE ALSO
    Because Date::Manip performs so many operations, the documentation is extensive. It includes the
    following documents:

  Information about the different interfaces
    Read this for a detailed description of each of the interfaces, including information on how to
    choose and use the interface best suited to your situation.

    Date::Manip::Interfaces
        A complete description of the functional interfaces available. NOTE: it is recommended that
        you use the OO interface wherever possible as the functional interfaces have some
        imitations.

  A description of the functional interfaces:
    Date::Manip::DM5
        The version 5 functional interface

    Date::Manip::DM6
        The version 6 functional interface

  Objects and configuration
    An introduction to the Date::Manip classes used by the object-oriented interface and how to
    configure them:

    Date::Manip::Objects
        An overview of the various Date::Manip modules, and how to use them.

    Date::Manip::Config
        Information for configuring Date::Manip

  Date::Manip object-oriented modules
    These are the modules for using the object-oriented interface.

    Date::Manip::Obj
        This is the base class. All other classes listed here inherit the methods defined in this
        class.

    Date::Manip::Base
        A module for doing low-level date operations.

    Date::Manip::TZ
        A module for working with time zones.

    Date::Manip::Date
        The module for working with dates.

    Date::Manip::Delta
        The module for working with deltas (amount of time).

    Date::Manip::Recur
        The module for working with recurrences (recurring dates).

  Timezone information
    Date::Manip::DM5abbrevs
        Time zone abbreviations used in the version 5 interface.

    Date::Manip::Zones
        Time zone data included in Date::Manip used in the version 6 interfaces.

  Miscellaneous information:
    Date::Manip::Calc
        Detailed information on how date calculations are done.

    Date::Manip::Holidays
        Information on defining and using holidays and events.

    Date::Manip::ConfigFile
        A sample config file.

    Date::Manip::Lang
        Information about the languages supported by Date::Manip and how to add a new language.

    Date::Manip::Lang::english
    Date::Manip::Lang::catalan
    Date::Manip::Lang::danish
    Date::Manip::Lang::dutch
    Date::Manip::Lang::finnish
    Date::Manip::Lang::french
    Date::Manip::Lang::german
    Date::Manip::Lang::italian
    Date::Manip::Lang::norwegian
    Date::Manip::Lang::polish
    Date::Manip::Lang::portugue
    Date::Manip::Lang::romanian
    Date::Manip::Lang::russian
    Date::Manip::Lang::spanish
    Date::Manip::Lang::swedish
    Date::Manip::Lang::turkish
        A description of the parseable words in each language currently supported by Date::Manip.

  Information about the module and administrative things:
    Date::Manip::Migration5to6
        Information on changes necessary to scripts when upgrading from 5.xx to 6.xx.

    Date::Manip::Changes5
        Change log for Date::Manip 5.xx

    Date::Manip::Changes5to6
        Differences between version 5.xx and 6.00 (including information on upgrading); this
        contains more details than the Migration5to6 document.

    Date::Manip::Changes6
        Change log for Date::Manip 6.xx

    Date::Manip::Misc
        Miscellaneous information about Date::Manip (who should use it; acknowledgments).

        Since many other date/time modules exist, some of which may do the specific operation(s) you
        need faster, be sure to read "SHOULD I USE DATE::MANIP" in Date::Manip::Misc before deciding
        which of the Date and Time modules from CPAN is for you. However, if you want one module to
        do it all, Date::Manip is the one to use.

    Date::Manip::History
        Musings on the history of Date::Manip written around it's 20th birthday.

    Date::Manip::Problems
        Common problems and instructions for reporting bugs.

    Date::Manip::Examples
        Examples of how to use Date::Manip.

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

AUTHOR
    Sullivan Beck (sbeck AT cpan.org)