Date::Manip question.

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

Dear Monks,

I am trying to use Date::Manip to deal with various date
formats.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use Date::Manip;

if ( !defined($ENV{'TZ'}) ) { 
    print "Tz not set!\n";
    $ENV{'TZ'} = "-0800"; 
}        
my $time_zone = $ENV{'TZ'};
my @strings = ( 
    "1999/12/12", 
    "02-03-01", 
    "10-13-97", 
    "2001-11-28" 
);

foreach $string ( @strings ) {
    my $date = &ParseDate( \$string );
    print "string is $string date is $date \n";
}
[download]

And here's the output

Tz not set!
string is 1999/12/12 date is 1999121200:00:00 
string is 02-03-01 date is 2002030100:00:00 
string is 10-13-97 date is  
string is 2001-11-28 date is 2001112800:00:00
[download]

Here's my questions:
1) why didn't Date::Manip read my mind and know that 02-03-01
should be "the thrid of February 2001"

2) what's wrong with 10-13-97 in the USA it should be
"the thirteenth of October 1997".

Comment on Date::Manip question. Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Date::Manip question. by zengargoyle (Deacon) on Mar 20, 2002 at 20:46 UTC
`perldoc Date::Manip` will answer your question. The short version is: ... All parts of the date can be separated by valid separators (space, "/", or "."). The separator "-" may be used as long as it doesn't conflict with an ISO 8601 format, but this is discouraged since it is easy to overlook conflicts. For example, the format MM/DD/YY is just fine, but MM-DD-YY does not work since it conflicts with YY-MM-DD. To be safe, if "-" is used as a separator in a non-ISO format, they should be turned into "/" before calling the Date::Manip routines. As with ISO 8601 formats, all separators are optional except for those given as a "/" in the list above.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Date::Manip question. by metadoktor (Hermit) on Mar 20, 2002 at 20:35 UTC
I don't know why Date::Manip didn't do what you wanted it to but I've described some other useful date modules in this node. metadoktor "The doktor is in."	[reply]