NAME

Date::Extract - extract probable dates from strings

VERSION

Version 0.02 released 13 Feb 08

SYNOPSIS

        my $parser = Date::Extract->new();
        my $dt = $parser->extract($arbitrary_text)
            or die "No date found.";
        return $dt->ymd;

MOTIVATION

There are already a few modules for getting a date out of a string. DateTime::Format::Natural should be your first choice. There's also Time::ParseDate which fits some very specific formats. Finally, you can coerce Date::Manip to do your bidding.

But I needed something that will take an arbitrary block of text, search it for something that looks like a date string, and build a DateTime object out of it. This module fills this niche. By design it will produce few false positives. This means it will not catch nearly everything that looks like a date string. So if you have the string "do homework for class 2019" it won't return a DateTime object with the year set to 2019.

METHODS
new PARAMHASH => "Date::Extract"
arguments
time_zone

        Forces a particular time zone to be set (this actually matters, as
        "Tuesday" on Monday at 11 PM means something different than
        "Tuesday" on Tuesday at 1 AM).

        By default it will use the "floating" time zone. See the
        documentation for DateTime.

        This controls both the input time zone and output time zone.

prefers

        This argument decides what happens when an ambiguous date appears in
        the input. For example, "Friday" may refer to any number of Fridays.
        The valid options for this argument are:

        nearest
            Prefer the nearest date. This is the default.

        future
            Prefer the closest future date.

        past
            Prefer the closest past date. NOT YET SUPPORTED.

returns

        If the text has multiple possible dates, then this argument
        determines which date will be returned. By default it's 'first'.

        first
            Returns the first date found in the string.

        last
            Returns the final date found in the string.

        earliest
            Returns the date found in the string that chronologically
            precedes any other date in the string.

        latest
            Returns the date found in the string that chronologically
            follows any other date in the string.

        all Returns all dates found in the string, in the order they were
            found in the strong.

        all_cron
            Returns all dates found in the string, in chronological order.

        This method will combine the arguments of parser->new and extract.
        Modify the "to" hash directly.

extract, ARGS text => "DateTime"s

        Takes an arbitrary amount of text and extracts one or more dates
        from it. The return value will be zero or more "DateTime" objects.
        If called in scalar context, only one will be returned, even if the
        "returns" argument specifies multiple possible return values.

        See the documentation of "new" for the configuration of this method.
        Any arguments passed into this method will trump those from the
        parser.

        You may reuse a parser for multiple calls to "extract".

        You do not need to have an instantiated "Date::Extract" object to
        call this method. Just "Date::Extract->extract($foo)" will work.

FORMATS HANDLED

        today; tomorrow; yesterday
        last Friday; next Monday; previous Sat
        Monday; Mon
        November 13th, 1986; Nov 13, 1986
        November 13th; Nov 13
        13 Nov; 13th November
        1986/11/13; 1986-11-13
        11-13-86; 11/13/1986

CAVEATS

        This module is intentionally very simple. Surprises are not
        welcome here.

SEE ALSO

DateTime::Format::Natural, Time::ParseDate, Date::Manip

AUTHOR

Shawn M Moore, "<sartak at gmail.com>"

BUGS

No known bugs at this point.

        Please report any bugs or feature requests to "bug-date-extract at
        rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at
        <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Date-Extract>. I
        will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of
        progress on your bug as I make changes.

SUPPORT

You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

perldoc Date::Extract

You can also look for information at:

• AnnoCPAN: Annotated CPAN documentation <http://annocpan.org/dist/Date-Extract>
• CPAN Ratings <http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Date-Extract>
• RT: CPAN's request tracker <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Date-Extract>
• Search CPAN <http://search.cpan.org/dist/Date-Extract>

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

        Thanks to Steven Schubiger for writing the fine
        DateTime::Format::Natural. We still use it, but it doesn't quite
        fill all the particular needs we have.

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

Copyright 2007 Best Practical Solutions.

        This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
        it under the same terms as Perl itself.