If you're retrieving your SQL DATETIME as a string, use something like Time::Piece's strptime or DateTime::Format::Strptime to convert it to a better representation, then use the provided methods to compare.

use DateTime ();
use DateTime::Format::Strptime ();
print DateTime::Format::Strptime
    ->new(pattern => '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%3N')
    ->parse_datetime('2012-01-31 00:00:00.000')
    ->truncate(to=>'day')
    ->compare( DateTime->today );
# compare returns 0 if they're equal
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That might seem like a little overkill for what could be done with a simple string comparison of two dates in the same format, but can be very useful once time zones or other DateTime features get involved.

thanks....

I'm not sure but it may be better / easier / faster / simpler to do the comparison in the SQL:

Something like http://sqlfiddle.com/#!3/d2910/8/2

-- fiddle schema (LHS):
create table t( d date );

-- fiddle SQL (RHS):
insert into t 
   values 
      ( getdate()     )
    , ( getdate() + 1 )
;

-- t now contains 2 rows

select * from t where d = cast(getdate() as date);
-- returns only the one row
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(Note that you have to cast the value as getdate returns a timestamp and not a date)

How? What database?

Where is there a problem?

How about you spend more then 10 seconds composing your question?

sql server is the database

(my $dd = $due_date) =~ s/-//g;
$dd =~ /(\d{8})/;
$past_due_date = ( $1 < $compare_date ) ? 'yes' : 'no';
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where $dd and $compare_date both = 'yyyyddmm'