I guess I don't quite get what you are trying to do then. To parse a date into a Time::Piece object you can use the strptime:

my $date = Time::Piece->strptime("01/02/2003",
                                 "%e/%B/%Y");
$t->created($date);
[download]

Where $t is a Class::DBI object with a 'created' column. With the has_a relationship you pass an object to the mutator, not a string. If you pass a string to the mutator, it will try to use the inflate method which will expect your date string to be in MySQL format. So just pass it a Time::Piece object which is what it is after anyway.

Now when you want to print it or retrieve it later on in the format you are after, you can use:

$t->created->dmy('/');
[download]

You don't have to worry about MySQL date formats at all, you just have to know how to create Time::Piece objects, and how to alter and access Time::Piece objects.

If you want these formats to happen automatically, then write a couple of functions that do the work for you:

sub parse_date {
  return Time::Piece->strptime(shift, "%e/%B/%Y");
}

sub stringify_date {
  return shift->dmy('/');
}
[download]

You could probably write a custom module that inherits from Time::Piece::MySQL and override the new and stringification subroutines with something like the above to make things a little more transparent.

If I am still misunderstanding what you are trying to accomplish, perhaps you could write a quick code sample of how you would like to use dates with Class::DBI.

- Cees

Updated: Fixed a dumb little typo

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