How can I parse relative dates with Perl?

Question

I\'d love to know if there is a module to parse \"human formatted\" dates in Perl. I mean things like \"tomorrow\", \"Tuesday\", \"next week\", \"1 hour ago\".

My re

Answer 1

Personally, I've always used Time::ParseDate for this. It understands pretty much every format I've tried.

Absolute date formats

    Dow, dd Mon yy
    Dow, dd Mon yyyy
    Dow, dd Mon
    dd Mon yy
    dd Mon yyyy
    Month day{st,nd,rd,th}, year
    Month day{st,nd,rd,th}
    Mon dd yyyy
    yyyy/mm/dd
    yyyy-mm-dd      (usually the best date specification syntax)
    yyyy/mm
    mm/dd/yy
    mm/dd/yyyy
    mm/yy
    yy/mm      (only if year > 12, or > 31 if UK)
    yy/mm/dd   (only if year > 12 and day < 32, or year > 31 if UK)
    dd/mm/yy   (only if UK, or an invalid mm/dd/yy or yy/mm/dd)
    dd/mm/yyyy (only if UK, or an invalid mm/dd/yyyy)
    dd/mm      (only if UK, or an invalid mm/dd)

Relative date formats:

    count "days"
    count "weeks"
    count "months"
    count "years"
    Dow "after next"
    Dow "before last"
    Dow                     (requires PREFER_PAST or PREFER_FUTURE)
    "next" Dow
    "tomorrow"
    "today"
    "yesterday"
    "last" dow
    "last week"
    "now"
    "now" "+" count units
    "now" "-" count units
    "+" count units         
    "-" count units
    count units "ago"

Absolute time formats:

    hh:mm:ss[.ffffd] 
    hh:mm 
    hh:mm[AP]M
    hh[AP]M
    hhmmss[[AP]M] 
    "noon"
    "midnight"

Relative time formats:

    count "minutes"         (count can be franctional "1.5" or "1 1/2")
    count "seconds"
    count "hours"
    "+" count units
    "+" count
    "-" count units
    "-" count
    count units "ago"

Timezone formats:

    [+-]ffffdd
    GMT[+-]d+
    [+-]ffffdd (TZN)
    TZN

Special formats:

    [ d]d/Mon/yyyy:hh:mm:ss [[+-]ffffdd]
    yy/mm/dd.hh:mm