You could use DateTime:

use DateTime;

my $dt=DateTime->now();
print $dt->hms();
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That's the one I'm looking for, thanks a million!

How did I miss out on DateTime I don't know. I probably did too much java, it rots the brain you know ;)

--
if ( 1 ) { $postman->ring() for (1..2); }

update: removed the antipattern ref($proto) and replaced by a simple shift, see ref($proto) - just say no! for more

My little experiment with unit testing, mod_perl, and business and even transfer objects...

It's actually a bit silly to use a transfer object just to pass around a date and time.

A major gain however is the fact that you can access the data in a uniform way:

$timeTO->getDate();
$timeTO->getTime();
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are both a little easier on the eyes (my view) than using a hash or even an index in an array

tmp/OO/BO/TimeBO.pm

package TimeBO;

# BO to tell the time

use warnings;
use strict;
use Carp;

# We need the day of Today and represent it in a long format
# Today() gives $year, $month and $day in a list
# Date_to_Text_long gives p.e. Thursday, February 2nd 2006
use DateTime;

# Because we want to pass the time around
use OO::TO::TimeTO;

sub new {
    my $class = shift;
    my $self = {
        TIMETO => undef,
    };
    my $closure = sub {
        my $field = shift;
        if (@_) { $self->{$field} = shift; }
        return $self->{$field};
    };
    bless ($closure,$class);
    return $closure;
}


# a public accessor to set DATE
sub setDate { 
    my $closure = $_[0];
    my $date = DateTime->now();
    my $timeTO = TimeTO->new();
    $timeTO->setDate( $date->ymd() );
    $timeTO->setTime( $date->hms() );
    setTimeTO( $closure, $timeTO );
}

# a private setter for TIMETO
sub setTimeTO { 
    caller(0) eq __PACKAGE__ || confess "setTimeTO is a private method
+";
    &{ $_[0] }("TIMETO", @_[1..$#_]);
}

# a public getter for TIMETO
sub getTimeTO { &{ $_[0] }("TIMETO"); }

1;
[download]

tmp/OO/BO/TimeBO.t

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

# change the lib path to import OO::BO::TimeBO and OO::TO::TimeTO
use lib qw( /home/gargle/public_html/cgi/ );

use Test::More 'no_plan';

use DateTime;

# We need the TimeBO and TimeTO classes
use OO::BO::TimeBO;
use OO::TO::TimeTO;

my $timeBO = TimeBO->new();
is( ref $timeBO, "TimeBO", "A TimeBO object");
$timeBO->setDate();

my $timeTO = $timeBO->getTimeTO();
is( ref $timeTO, "TimeTO", "A TimeTO object");

# the output of Today is $year, $month, $day, which is exactly what
# Date_to_Text_Long needs
my $today = DateTime->now();

is( $timeTO->getDate() , $today->ymd(), "It's $today");
is( $timeTO->getTime() , $today->hms(), "It's $today");
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tmp/OO/TO/TimeTO.pm

package TimeTO;

# TO to pass the time around

use warnings;
use strict;
use Carp;

# constructor
sub new {
    my $class = shift;
    my $self = {
            DATE => undef,
        TIME => undef,
    };
    my $closure = sub {
        my $field = shift;
        if (@_) { $self->{$field} = shift; }
        return $self->{$field};
    };
    bless ($closure,$class);
    return $closure;
}

# a public accessor to set DATE
sub setDate { &{ $_[0] }("DATE", @_[1..$#_] ) }

# a public getter to get DATE
sub getDate { &{ $_[0] }("DATE") }

# a public accessor to set TIME
sub setTime { &{ $_[0] }("TIME", @_[1..$#_] ) }

# a public getter to get TIME
sub getTime { &{ $_[0] }("TIME") }

1;
[download]

tmp/OO/TO/TimeTO.t

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

# change the lib path to import OO::TO::TimeTO
use lib qw( /home/gargle/public_html/cgi/ );

use Test::More 'no_plan';

use DateTime;

use OO::TO::TimeTO;

my $timeTO = TimeTO->new();
is( ref $timeTO, "TimeTO", "A TimeTO object");

# the output of Today is $year, $month, $day, which is exactly what
# Date_to_Text_Long needs
my $today = DateTime->now();

$timeTO->setDate( $today->ymd() );
is( $timeTO->getDate(), $today->ymd(), "it's $today");

$timeTO->setTime( $today->hms() );
is( $timeTO->getTime(), $today->hms(), "it's $today");
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tmp/Time.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl -wT

use strict;
use warnings;

use CGI;

# we add the BO's and TO's to the path
use lib qw( /home/gargle/public_html/cgi/ );

# classes needed
use OO::BO::TimeBO;
use OO::TO::TimeTO;

my $page = CGI->new();

my $timeBO = TimeBO->new();
$timeBO->setDate();
my $timeTO = $timeBO->getTimeTO();

print $page->header( "text/html" ),
      $page->start_html(-title => "My first mod_perl cgi",
                        -bgcolor => "#ffffcc",
               ),
      $page->h1( "The current day is" ),
      $page->p( $timeTO->getDate() ),
      $page->h1( "The current time is" ),
      $page->p( $timeTO->getTime() ),
      $page->end_html();
[download]

--
if ( 1 ) { $postman->ring() for (1..2); }

I thought about using strftime but it would give me the same 'problem': provide a format string

I was looking actually for a module that would show HH:MM:SS by default.

--
if ( 1 ) { $postman->ring() for (1..2); }

Well, the POSIX::strftime way is shorter than printf:

use POSIX;
print strftime("%H:%M:%S", localtime);
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since time (i.e. Now) is the default for localtime. And if you wrap this into a sub, its usage is even shorter:

sub TimeHMS {
  my $time = scalar(@_) ? shift(@_) : time;
  return strftime( "%H:%M:%S", localtime($time) );
} # TimeHMS
print TimeHMS();
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Best regards,
perl -e "s>>*F>e=>y)\*martinF)stronat)=>print,print v8.8.8.32.11.32"

I usually grab all the time-related variables and then format them according to my needs.

my ($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst)=localtime (ti
+me);

my $ts = sprintf("%02d:%02d:%2d" $hour, $min, $sec);
[download]

This way, they're available if I need some other form.