Assigning a parsed date to a variable

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

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Re: Assigning a parsed date to a variable by kennethk (Abbot) on Mar 30, 2017 at 18:46 UTC
A substitution regular expression normally changes the string to edit and returns the number of changes. Thus you actually changed your target string for your second case. To get what you meant to get, you would use the code `#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my $adate = "2017-01-29 11:30:07.370"; # more direct way, but returning a "1". my $a_new_datetime = $adate; $a_new_datetime =~ s/(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})\s(\d{2}):(\d{2})(.)/$2-$ +3-$1 $4:$5/; print "\n 1 - $a_new_datetime\n\n"; my $new_datetime = $adate; $new_datetime =~ s/(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})\s(\d{2}):(\d{2})(.)/$2-$3- +$1 $4:$5/; print " 2 - $new_datetime\n\n";` [download] Alternatively, you can use the `r` modifier (s/_PATTERN_/_REPLACEMENT_/msixpodualngcer in perlop)to shift the behavior to return a value without editing the original string: `#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my $adate = "2017-01-29 11:30:07.370"; # more direct way, but returning a "1". ; printf "\n 1 - %s\n\n", $adate =~ s/(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})\s(\d{2}):( +\d{2})(.)/$2-$3-$1 $4:$5/r; printf " 2 - %s\n\n", $adate =~ s/(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})\s(\d{2}):(\d +{2})(.)/$2-$3-$1 $4:$5/r;` [download] #11929 First ask yourself `How would I do this without a computer?' Then have the computer do it the same way.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Assigning a parsed date to a variable by AnomalousMonk (Archbishop) on Mar 30, 2017 at 19:30 UTC
The `s///` substitution `/r` modifier is only available from Perl version 5.14 onwards. kennethk has shown how to use the `/r` modifier, but if you have a Perl version prior to 5.14 and wish to preserve the original string, use method B below: `c:\@Work\Perl>perl -wMstrict -le "my $adate = '2017-01-29 11:30:07.370'; ;; my $A_new = $adate =~ s/(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})\s(\d{2}):(\d{2})(.)/ +$2-$3-$1 $4:$5/r; print qq{A: new '$A_new' old '$adate'}; ;; (my $B_new = $adate) =~ s/(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})\s(\d{2}):(\d{2})(. +)/$2-$3-$1 $4:$5/; print qq{B: new '$B_new' old '$adate'}; " A: new '01-29-2017 11:30' old '2017-01-29 11:30:07.370' B: new '01-29-2017 11:30' old '2017-01-29 11:30:07.370'` [download] In both cases, the original string, `$adate` in this case, is left unchanged. If you do not mind changing this variable, just use a normal `$string =~ s///` substitution. Give a man a fish: `<%-{-{-{-<`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Assigning a parsed date to a variable by Anonymous Monk on Mar 30, 2017 at 20:00 UTC
This line was what I was trying to remember: `(my $B_new = $adate) =~ s/(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})\s(\d{2}):(\d{2})(.*)/$2-$3-$1 $4:$5/;` Thank you all!	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Assigning a parsed date to a variable by Laurent_R (Canon) on Mar 30, 2017 at 21:48 UTC
The difference is context. In scalar context, a regex usually returns the number of matches or the number of substitutions, which is not what you want here. Adding parentheses creates a list context in which a regex will usually return something closer to what you want here.	[reply]
Re^4: Assigning a parsed date to a variable by AnomalousMonk (Archbishop) on Mar 30, 2017 at 23:19 UTC
Re: Assigning a parsed date to a variable by AppleFritter (Vicar) on Mar 30, 2017 at 21:38 UTC
Have you considered turning to CPAN instead of rolling your own regular expressions to parse dates/times? My immediate instinct was to reach for e.g. Time::ParseDate, or one of the DateTime::Format::* family. DateTime itself should then be able to format the result in any way you want. For instance: `#!/usr/bin/perl use Modern::Perl '2015'; use DateTime; use Time::ParseDate; my $adate = "2017-01-29 11:30:07.370"; my $epoch_seconds = parsedate($adate, ZONE => "UTC"); my $dt = DateTime->from_epoch(epoch => $epoch_seconds); say $dt->strftime("%m-%d-%Y %H:%M");` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Assigning a parsed date to a variable by 1nickt (Canon) on Mar 30, 2017 at 21:47 UTC
Hi, you said: unless there is a more efficient way of doing it Unless you are working on your regexp-fu, I would suggest not using a regexp to parse dates. Efficiency extends to future readability of your code. Just use DateTime::Format::Strptime to make a parser with the format you want and eval to see if the string parses into a DateTime object. Here's an SSCCE that demonstrates: `use strict; use warnings; use feature qw/ say state /; use DateTime::Format::Strptime; for ( <DATA> ) { chomp; say sprintf '%-24s: %s', $_, validate( $_ ) ? 'OK' : 'Not OK'; } sub validate { state $parser = DateTime::Format::Strptime->new( pattern => '%F %T.%3N', on_error => 'croak', ); return eval { $parser->parse_datetime( @_ ); 1 }; } __DATA__ 2017-01-29 11:30:07.370 2017-01-29 11:30:07.000 2017-01-32 11:30:07.370 2017-01-29 11:30:07 foo bar` [download] Edit: Or, declare the parser without the `on_error` attribute, and then you can use the DateTime object, if you can parse a date from your string. Presumably you want to use the date after you've found it. `my $str = '2017-01-29 11:30:07.370'; $parser = DateTime::Format::Strptime->new( pattern => '%F %T.%3N' ); if ( my $dt = $parser->parse_datetime( $str ) ) { say "Interestingly, $str falls on a " . $dt->day_name; } else { say "$str is not a valid date"; }` [download] Hope this helps! The way forward always starts with a minimal test.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Assigning a parsed date to a variable by shmem (Chancellor) on Mar 30, 2017 at 21:54 UTC
TIMTOWTDI, of course ;-) `use Date::Parse; my $adate = "2017-01-29 11:30:07.370" my $new_datetime = str2time $adate; print $new_datetime,$/; __END__ 1485685807.37` [download] perl -le'print map{pack c,($-++?1:13)+ord}split//,ESEL'	[reply] [d/l]