I provide this because, quite simply, I'm sure you'd not be allowed to use it! However it's really the easiest solution to the problem:

package DateTime::Format::Homework;
use DateTime::Format::Builder (
    parsers => {
        parse_datetime => [
            {strptime => '%b %d %Y'}, # Apr 8 1984
            {strptime => '%b %d %y'}, # Apr 08 84
            {strptime => '%m/%d/%y'}, # 4/8/84 and 04/08/84
            {strptime => '%d %b %Y'}, # 08 Apr 1984
        ],
    }
);

[download]

And that's it, you have a parser that will handle all your teacher's dates without you needing to tell the script which kind of date you have. Of course, you can keep on adding strptime parsers until the cows come home and it will still work.*

Now here's how to use it:

use DateTime::Format::Homework;

foreach ('Apr 8 1984', 'Apr 08 84', '4/8/84', '04/08/84', '08 Apr 1984
+') {
    print DateTime::Format::Homework->parse_datetime( $_ )->ymd . "\n"
+;
}

[download]
Returns (tested): 
1984-04-08
1984-04-08
1984-04-08
1984-04-08
1984-04-08

[download]
*Note that this isn't exactly true because both %m-%d-%y and %d-%m-%y would work for 03-03-84. The cows came home.

In reply to Re: More date conversion happiness by BigLug
in thread More date conversion happiness by ctp

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