Date::Format

Date::Format(3)	     User Contributed Perl Documentation      Date::Format(3)



NAME
       Date::Format - Date formating subroutines

SYNOPSIS
	       use Date::Format;

	       @lt = localtime(time);

	       print time2str($template, time);
	       print strftime($template, @lt);

	       print time2str($template, time, $zone);
	       print strftime($template, @lt, $zone);

	       print ctime(time);
	       print asctime(@lt);

	       print ctime(time, $zone);
	       print asctime(@lt, $zone);

DESCRIPTION
       This module provides routines to format dates into ASCII strings. They
       correspond to the C library routines "strftime" and "ctime".

       time2str(TEMPLATE, TIME [, ZONE])
	   "time2str" converts "TIME" into an ASCII string using the conver-
	   sion specification given in "TEMPLATE". "ZONE" if given specifies
	   the zone which the output is required to be in, "ZONE" defaults to
	   your current zone.

       strftime(TEMPLATE, TIME [, ZONE])
	   "strftime" is similar to "time2str" with the exception that the
	   time is passed as an array, such as the array returned by "local-
	   time".

       ctime(TIME [, ZONE])
	   "ctime" calls "time2str" with the given arguments using the con-
	   version specification "%a %b %e %T %Y\n"

       asctime(TIME [, ZONE])
	   "asctime" calls "time2str" with the given arguments using the con-
	   version specification "%a %b %e %T %Y\n"

MULTI-LANGUAGE SUPPORT
       Date::Format is capable of formating into several languages, these are
       English, French, German and Italian. Changing the language is done via
       a static method call, for example

	       Date::Format->language(’German’);

       will change the language in which all subsequent dates are formatted.

       This is only a first pass, I am considering changing this to be

	       $lang = Date::Language->new(’German’);
	       $lang->time2str("%a %b %e %T %Y\n", time);

       I am open to suggestions on this.

CONVERSION SPECIFICATION
       Each conversion specification  is  replaced  by	appropriate charac-
       ters   as   described  in  the  following  list.	  The appropriate
       characters  are	determined  by	 the   LC_TIME category of the pro-
       gram’s locale.

	       %%      PERCENT
	       %a      day of the week abbr
	       %A      day of the week
	       %b      month abbr
	       %B      month
	       %c      MM/DD/YY HH:MM:SS
	       %C      ctime format: Sat Nov 19 21:05:57 1994
	       %d      numeric day of the month, with leading zeros (eg 01..31)
	       %e      numeric day of the month, without leading zeros (eg 1..31)
	       %D      MM/DD/YY
	       %G      GPS week number (weeks since January 6, 1980)
	       %h      month abbr
	       %H      hour, 24 hour clock, leading 0’s)
	       %I      hour, 12 hour clock, leading 0’s)
	       %j      day of the year
	       %k      hour
	       %l      hour, 12 hour clock
	       %L      month number, starting with 1
	       %m      month number, starting with 01
	       %M      minute, leading 0’s
	       %n      NEWLINE
	       %o      ornate day of month -- "1st", "2nd", "25th", etc.
	       %p      AM or PM
	       %P      am or pm (Yes %p and %P are backwards :)
	       %q      Quarter number, starting with 1
	       %r      time format: 09:05:57 PM
	       %R      time format: 21:05
	       %s      seconds since the Epoch, UCT
	       %S      seconds, leading 0’s
	       %t      TAB
	       %T      time format: 21:05:57
	       %U      week number, Sunday as first day of week
	       %w      day of the week, numerically, Sunday == 0
	       %W      week number, Monday as first day of week
	       %x      date format: 11/19/94
	       %X      time format: 21:05:57
	       %y      year (2 digits)
	       %Y      year (4 digits)
	       %Z      timezone in ascii. eg: PST
	       %z      timezone in format -/+0000

       %d, %e, %H, %I, %j, %k, %l, %m, %M, %q, %y and %Y can be output in
       Roman numerals by prefixing the letter with "O", e.g. %OY will output
       the year as roman numerals.

AUTHOR
       Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (c) 1995-1999 Graham Barr. All rights reserved. This program
       is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
       same terms as Perl itself.



perl v5.8.8			  2003-06-02		      Date::Format(3)