{
package MyDate;
use vars qw($AUTOLOAD);

use Carp;

my %Allowed_methods = qw( date 3 month 4 year 5 );
my @Offsets = qw(0 0 0 0 1 1900 0 0 0);

sub new { bless {}, $_[0] }
sub DESTROY {}

sub AUTOLOAD {
my $method = $AUTOLOAD;
$method =~ s/.*:://;
unless( exists $Allowed_methods{ $method } ) {
carp "Unknown method: $AUTOLOAD";
return;
}


my $slice_index = $Allowed_methods{ $method };

return (localtime)[$slice_index] + $Offsets[$slice_index];
}
}

MyDate->import; # we don't use it
my $date = MyDate->new();

print "The date is " . $date->date . "\n";
print "The month is " . $date->month . "\n";
print "The year is " . $date->year . "\n";