Hello sreek3502,

Welcome to the Monastery. Fellow monks have answered your question, but I wanted to add my favorite formatting date module Date::Manip. I discovered the module fairly recent but I was blast by the capabilities. It may look a bit complicated at the beginning but more you experiment easier it becomes.

Having said that, I think you are looking for something like that?

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Date::Manip;
use feature 'say';

my $dateLocal = ParseDate('now');
# say $dateLocal;

my $str = UnixDate($dateLocal,"It is now %T on %b %e, %Y.");
say $str;

my $str_second = UnixDate($dateLocal,"It is now %T on %B %e, %Y.");
say $str_second;

my $str_decimal = UnixDate($dateLocal,"It is now decimal %T on %B %d, 
+%Y.");
say $str_decimal;

my $deltastr = "12 hours ago";

my $date_past = DateCalc($dateLocal,$deltastr);
# say $date;

my $str_past = UnixDate($date_past,"It was 12 hours ago %T on %B %d, %
+Y.");
say $str_past;

__END__

$ perl test.pl
It is now 11:05:12 on Oct  9, 2017.
It is now 11:05:12 on October  9, 2017.
It is now decimal 11:05:12 on October 09, 2017.
It was 12 hours ago 23:05:12 on October 08, 2017.
[download]

You can modify the output of the date by using any of the POSIX::strftime::GNU/FORMAT parameters.

Or an alternative to simplify it even more is to use the POSIX::strftime::GNU. Check out also the POSIX::strftime::GNU/FORMAT on how to play around with the stdout format based on your desire.

Sample of code:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use feature 'say';

use POSIX 'strftime';
use POSIX::strftime::GNU;
say POSIX::strftime('%a, %d %b %Y %T %z', localtime);

__END__

$ perl test.pl
Mon, 09 Oct 2017 10:57:25 +0200
[download]

Depending on what you want to do, and what is easier for you to create / maintain you can choose to apply.

I hope this helps, BR.