Date::Manip can do quite a lot, but not everything. Check this test script.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use Date::Manip;
while (<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    my $date = ParseDate($_);
    if ($date) {
        print "$_ \t=> ",  UnixDate($date,"%b %e, %Y."),"\n";
    }
    else {
        print "$_ \t=> not a valid date\n";
    }
}

__DATA__
19971103
11031997
11.03.1997
19983201
20031110
20031011
1993jan02
2002dec08
yesterday
today
tomorrow
Aug12
12Aug2003
Aug122003
122003Aug

[download]
output:

19971103        => Nov  3, 1997.
11031997        => not a valid date
11.03.1997      => Nov  3, 1997.
19983201        => not a valid date
20031110        => Nov 10, 2003.
20031011        => Oct 11, 2003.
1993jan02       => Jan  2, 1993.
2002dec08       => Dec  8, 2002.
yesterday       => Sep 29, 2003.
today           => Sep 30, 2003.
tomorrow        => Oct  1, 2003.
Aug12           => Aug 12, 2003.
12Aug2003       => Aug 12, 2003.
Aug122003       => Aug 12, 2003.
122003Aug       => Aug 12, 2003.

[download]

Your 11031997 is not recognized as it is, but it is parsed correctly if you add dots. Check the documentation to see which formats are recognized. You see from the example that it is quite flexible.

Be aware, though, that Date::Manip is very slow compared to direct regexp manipulation. Check the docs for this issue as well.

HTH

In reply to Re: Numeric Date Validation by dbwiz
in thread Numeric Date Validation by booter

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.