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 ambigious 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 consisting of specific hours given for peculiar daytimes. Daytimes 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 didn't succeed. trace Returns a trace of methods which we're called within the Base class and a summary how often certain units were 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 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. König Chia-liang Kao Jonny Schulz Jesse Vincent Jason May Pat Kale Ankur Gupta SEE ALSO DateTime, Date::Calc, 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