NAME DateTime::Format::Natural - Parse informal natural language date/time strings SYNOPSIS use DateTime::Format::Natural; $parser = DateTime::Format::Natural->new; $dt = $parser->parse_datetime($date_string); @dt = $parser->parse_datetime_duration($date_string); $date_string = $parser->extract_datetime($extract_string); @date_strings = $parser->extract_datetime($extract_string); if ($parser->success) { # operate on $dt/@dt, for example: print $dt->strftime('%d.%m.%Y %H:%M:%S'), "\n"; } else { warn $parser->error; } @traces = $parser->trace; # examples 12:14 PM next tuesday at 2am tomorrow morning 4pm yesterday 10 weeks ago 1st tuesday last november 2nd friday in august final thursday in april for 3 hours monday to friday 1 April 10 am to 1 May 8am jan 24, 2011 12:00 DESCRIPTION `DateTime::Format::Natural' parses informal natural language date/time strings. In addition, parsable date/time substrings may be extracted from ordinary strings. 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 future 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 natural language 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 two DateTime objects constructed from a natural language 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); extract_datetime Returns parsable date/time substrings (also known as expressions) extracted from the string provided; in scalar context only the first parsable substring is returned, whereas in list context all parsable substrings are returned. Each extracted substring can then be passed to the `parse_datetime()'/ `parse_datetime_duration()' methods. $date_string = $parser->extract_datetime($extract_string); @date_strings = $parser->extract_datetime($extract_string); # or $date_string = $parser->extract_datetime(string => $extract_string); @date_strings = $parser->extract_datetime(string => $extract_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 one or two strings with the grammar keyword for the valid expression parsed, traces of methods which were called within the Calc class and a summary how often certain units have been modified. More than one string is commonly returned for durations. Useful as a debugging aid. 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 class DateTime::Format::Natural::Lang::EN if you're intending to hack a bit on the grammar guts. EXAMPLES See the class DateTime::Format::Natural::Lang::EN for an overview of currently valid input. BUGS & CAVEATS `parse_datetime()'/`parse_datetime_duration()' always return one or two DateTime objects regardless whether the parse was successful or not. In case no valid expression was found or a failure occurred, an unaltered DateTime object with its initial values (most often the "current" now) is likely to be returned. It is therefore recommended to use `success()' to assert that the parse did succeed (at least, for common uses), otherwise the absence of a parse failure cannot be guaranteed. `parse_datetime()' is not capable of handling durations. 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 Eric Wilhelm Kevin Field Wes Morgan Vladimir Marek Rod Taylor Tim Esselens Colm Dougan Chifung Fan Xiao Yafeng Roman Filippov David Steinbrunner Debian Perl Group Tim Bunce Ricardo Signes SEE ALSO dateparse, 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/