Provided by: libdate-calc-perl_6.4-2_all bug

NAME

       Date::Calc - Gregorian calendar date calculations

MOTTO

       Keep it small, fast and simple

PREFACE

       This package consists of a C library and a Perl module (which uses the C library, internally) for all
       kinds of date calculations based on the Gregorian calendar (the one used in all western countries today),
       thereby complying with all relevant norms and standards: ISO/R 2015-1971, DIN 1355 and, to some extent,
       ISO 8601 (where applicable).

       (See also http://www.engelschall.com/u/sb/download/Date-Calc/DIN1355/ for a scan of part of the
       "DIN 1355" document (in German)).

       The module of course handles year numbers of 2000 and above correctly ("Year 2000" or "Y2K" compliance)
       -- actually all year numbers from 1 to the largest positive integer representable on your system (which
       is at least 32767) can be dealt with.

       This is not true, however, for the import/export functions in this package which are an interface to the
       internal POSIX date and time functions of your system, which can only cover dates in the following
       ranges:

        01-Jan-1970 00:00:00 GMT .. 19-Jan-2038 03:14:07 GMT [Unix etc.]
        01-Jan-1904 00:00:00 LT  .. 06-Feb-2040 06:28:15 LT  [MacOS Classic]
        (LT = local time)

       Note that this package projects the Gregorian calendar back until the year 1 A.D. -- even though the
       Gregorian calendar was only adopted in 1582, mostly by the Catholic European countries, in obedience to
       the corresponding decree of Pope Gregory XIII in that year.

       Some (mainly protestant) countries continued to use the Julian calendar (used until then) until as late
       as the beginning of the 20th century.

       Finally, note that this package is not intended to do everything you could ever imagine automagically for
       you; it is rather intended to serve as a toolbox (in the best of UNIX spirit and traditions) which
       should, however, always get you where you want to go.

       See the section "RECIPES" at the bottom of this document for solutions to common problems!

       If nevertheless you can't figure out how to solve a particular problem, please let me know! (See e-mail
       address at the end of this document.)

SYNOPSIS

         use Date::Calc qw(
             Days_in_Year
             Days_in_Month
             Weeks_in_Year
             leap_year
             check_date
             check_time
             check_business_date
             Day_of_Year
             Date_to_Days
             Day_of_Week
             Week_Number
             Week_of_Year
             Monday_of_Week
             Nth_Weekday_of_Month_Year
             Standard_to_Business
             Business_to_Standard
             Delta_Days
             Delta_DHMS
             Delta_YMD
             Delta_YMDHMS
             N_Delta_YMD
             N_Delta_YMDHMS
             Normalize_DHMS
             Add_Delta_Days
             Add_Delta_DHMS
             Add_Delta_YM
             Add_Delta_YMD
             Add_Delta_YMDHMS
             Add_N_Delta_YMD
             Add_N_Delta_YMDHMS
             System_Clock
             Today
             Now
             Today_and_Now
             This_Year
             Gmtime
             Localtime
             Mktime
             Timezone
             Date_to_Time
             Time_to_Date
             Easter_Sunday
             Decode_Month
             Decode_Day_of_Week
             Decode_Language
             Decode_Date_EU
             Decode_Date_US
             Fixed_Window
             Moving_Window
             Compress
             Uncompress
             check_compressed
             Compressed_to_Text
             Date_to_Text
             Date_to_Text_Long
             English_Ordinal
             Calendar
             Month_to_Text
             Day_of_Week_to_Text
             Day_of_Week_Abbreviation
             Language_to_Text
             Language
             Languages
             Decode_Date_EU2
             Decode_Date_US2
             Parse_Date
             ISO_LC
             ISO_UC
         );

         use Date::Calc qw(:all);

         Days_in_Year
             $days = Days_in_Year($year,$month);

         Days_in_Month
             $days = Days_in_Month($year,$month);

         Weeks_in_Year
             $weeks = Weeks_in_Year($year);

         leap_year
             if (leap_year($year))

         check_date
             if (check_date($year,$month,$day))

         check_time
             if (check_time($hour,$min,$sec))

         check_business_date
             if (check_business_date($year,$week,$dow))

         Day_of_Year
             $doy = Day_of_Year($year,$month,$day);

         Date_to_Days
             $days = Date_to_Days($year,$month,$day);

         Day_of_Week
             $dow = Day_of_Week($year,$month,$day);

         Week_Number
             $week = Week_Number($year,$month,$day);          # DEPRECATED

         Week_of_Year
             ($week,$year) = Week_of_Year($year,$month,$day); # RECOMMENDED
             $week = Week_of_Year($year,$month,$day);         # DANGEROUS

         Monday_of_Week
             ($year,$month,$day) = Monday_of_Week($week,$year);

         Nth_Weekday_of_Month_Year
             if (($year,$month,$day) =
             Nth_Weekday_of_Month_Year($year,$month,$dow,$n))

         Standard_to_Business
             ($year,$week,$dow) =
             Standard_to_Business($year,$month,$day);

         Business_to_Standard
             ($year,$month,$day) =
             Business_to_Standard($year,$week,$dow);

         Delta_Days
             $Dd = Delta_Days($year1,$month1,$day1,
                              $year2,$month2,$day2);

         Delta_DHMS
             ($Dd,$Dh,$Dm,$Ds) =
             Delta_DHMS($year1,$month1,$day1, $hour1,$min1,$sec1,
                        $year2,$month2,$day2, $hour2,$min2,$sec2);

         Delta_YMD
             ($Dy,$Dm,$Dd) =
             Delta_YMD($year1,$month1,$day1,
                       $year2,$month2,$day2);

         Delta_YMDHMS
             ($D_y,$D_m,$D_d, $Dh,$Dm,$Ds) =
             Delta_YMDHMS($year1,$month1,$day1, $hour1,$min1,$sec1,
                          $year2,$month2,$day2, $hour2,$min2,$sec2);

         N_Delta_YMD
             ($Dy,$Dm,$Dd) =
             N_Delta_YMD($year1,$month1,$day1,
                         $year2,$month2,$day2);

         N_Delta_YMDHMS
             ($D_y,$D_m,$D_d, $Dhh,$Dmm,$Dss) =
             N_Delta_YMDHMS($year1,$month1,$day1, $hour1,$min1,$sec1,
                            $year2,$month2,$day2, $hour2,$min2,$sec2);

         Normalize_DHMS
             ($Dd,$Dh,$Dm,$Ds) =
             Normalize_DHMS($Dd,$Dh,$Dm,$Ds);

         Add_Delta_Days
             ($year,$month,$day) =
             Add_Delta_Days($year,$month,$day,
                            $Dd);

         Add_Delta_DHMS
             ($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec) =
             Add_Delta_DHMS($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec,
                            $Dd,$Dh,$Dm,$Ds);

         Add_Delta_YM
             ($year,$month,$day) =
             Add_Delta_YM($year,$month,$day,
                          $Dy,$Dm);

         Add_Delta_YMD
             ($year,$month,$day) =
             Add_Delta_YMD($year,$month,$day,
                           $Dy,$Dm,$Dd);

         Add_Delta_YMDHMS
             ($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec) =
             Add_Delta_YMDHMS($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec,
                              $D_y,$D_m,$D_d, $Dh,$Dm,$Ds);

         Add_N_Delta_YMD
             ($year,$month,$day) =
             Add_N_Delta_YMD($year,$month,$day,
                             $Dy,$Dm,$Dd);

         Add_N_Delta_YMDHMS
             ($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec) =
             Add_N_Delta_YMDHMS($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec,
                                $D_y,$D_m,$D_d, $Dhh,$Dmm,$Dss);

         System_Clock
             ($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec, $doy,$dow,$dst) =
             System_Clock([$gmt]);

         Today
             ($year,$month,$day) = Today([$gmt]);

         Now
             ($hour,$min,$sec) = Now([$gmt]);

         Today_and_Now
             ($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec) = Today_and_Now([$gmt]);

         This_Year
             $year = This_Year([$gmt]);

         Gmtime
             ($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec, $doy,$dow,$dst) =
             Gmtime([time]);

         Localtime
             ($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec, $doy,$dow,$dst) =
             Localtime([time]);

         Mktime
             $time = Mktime($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec);

         Timezone
             ($D_y,$D_m,$D_d, $Dh,$Dm,$Ds, $dst) = Timezone([time]);

         Date_to_Time
             $time = Date_to_Time($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec);

         Time_to_Date
             ($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec) = Time_to_Date([time]);

         Easter_Sunday
             ($year,$month,$day) = Easter_Sunday($year);

         Decode_Month
             if ($month = Decode_Month($string[,$lang]))

         Decode_Day_of_Week
             if ($dow = Decode_Day_of_Week($string[,$lang]))

         Decode_Language
             if ($lang = Decode_Language($string))

         Decode_Date_EU
             if (($year,$month,$day) = Decode_Date_EU($string[,$lang]))

         Decode_Date_US
             if (($year,$month,$day) = Decode_Date_US($string[,$lang]))

         Fixed_Window
             $year = Fixed_Window($yy);

         Moving_Window
             $year = Moving_Window($yy);

         Compress
             $date = Compress($year,$month,$day);

         Uncompress
             if (($century,$year,$month,$day) = Uncompress($date))

         check_compressed
             if (check_compressed($date))

         Compressed_to_Text
             $string = Compressed_to_Text($date[,$lang]);

         Date_to_Text
             $string = Date_to_Text($year,$month,$day[,$lang]);

         Date_to_Text_Long
             $string = Date_to_Text_Long($year,$month,$day[,$lang]);

         English_Ordinal
             $string = English_Ordinal($number);

         Calendar
             $string = Calendar($year,$month[,$orthodox[,$lang]]);

         Month_to_Text
             $string = Month_to_Text($month[,$lang]);

         Day_of_Week_to_Text
             $string = Day_of_Week_to_Text($dow[,$lang]);

         Day_of_Week_Abbreviation
             $string = Day_of_Week_Abbreviation($dow[,$lang]);

         Language_to_Text
             $string = Language_to_Text($lang);

         Language
             $lang = Language();
             Language($lang);               # DEPRECATED
             $oldlang = Language($newlang); # DEPRECATED

         Languages
             $max_lang = Languages();

         Decode_Date_EU2
             if (($year,$month,$day) = Decode_Date_EU2($string[,$lang]))

         Decode_Date_US2
             if (($year,$month,$day) = Decode_Date_US2($string[,$lang]))

         Parse_Date
             if (($year,$month,$day) = Parse_Date($string[,$lang]))

         ISO_LC
             $lower = ISO_LC($string);

         ISO_UC
             $upper = ISO_UC($string);

         Version
             $string = Date::Calc::Version();

IMPORTANT NOTES

       (See the section "RECIPES" at the bottom of this document for solutions to common problems!)

       • "Year 2000" ("Y2K") compliance

         The  upper  limit  for any year number in this module is only given by the size of the largest positive
         integer that can be represented in a variable of the C type "int" on your system,  which  is  at  least
         32767, according to the ANSI C standard (exceptions see below).

         In  order  to  simplify  calculations,  this module projects the gregorian calendar back until the year
         1 A.D. -- i.e., back BEYOND the year 1582 when this calendar was first decreed  by  the  Catholic  Pope
         Gregory XIII!

         Therefore,  BE  SURE TO ALWAYS SPECIFY "1998" WHEN YOU MEAN "1998", for instance, and DO NOT WRITE "98"
         INSTEAD, because this will in fact perform a calculation based on the year "98" A.D. and NOT "1998"!

         An exception from this rule are the functions which contain the word "compress" in their  names  (which
         can  only  handle  years between 1970 and 2069 and also accept the abbreviations "00" to "99"), and the
         functions whose names begin with "Decode_Date_"  (which  translate  year  numbers  below  100  using  a
         technique known as "moving window").

         If you want to convert a two-digit year number into a full-fledged, four-digit (at least for some years
         to  come  ";-)")  year  number, use the two functions "Fixed_Window()" and "Moving_Window()" (see their
         description further below).

         Note also that the following import/export functions (which  are  interfaces  to  the  POSIX  functions
         "time()",  "gmtime()",  "localtime()" and "mktime()" or (the last two) substitutes for the BSD function
         "timegm()" and the POSIX function "gmtime()") have a very limited  range  of  representable  dates  (in
         contrast  to  all  other  functions in this package, which cover virtually any date including and after
         January 1st 1 A.D.):

                       System_Clock()
                       Today()
                       Now()
                       Today_and_Now()
                       This_Year()
                       Gmtime()
                       Localtime()
                       Mktime()
                       Timezone()
                       Date_to_Time()
                       Time_to_Date()

         These  functions  can  only  deal  with  dates  in  the  range  from  01-Jan-1970   00:00:00   GMT   to
         19-Jan-2038  03:14:07  GMT  (the latter limit is only authoritative on 32 bit systems, however, and can
         (in principle, through a few code changes) be extended somewhat ":-)" on 64 bit systems).

         On MacOS Classic, the valid range of dates is between (both included) 01-Jan-1904 00:00:00 (local time)
         to 06-Feb-2040 06:28:15 (local time).

         Note further that the function "Easter_Sunday()" can only be used for years in the range 1583 to 2299.

       • POSIX functions

         Note that the following functions

                       Gmtime()
                       Localtime()
                       Mktime()
                       Timezone()

         are actually wrappers around or based upon the  corresponding  POSIX  functions  "time()",  "gmtime()",
         "localtime()" and "mktime()".

         As  such,  they  depend  on local settings of the underlying machine such as e.g. the system clock, the
         time zone and the locale.

         Their results can therefore sometimes be unexpected or counter-intuitive.

         Therefore, no support can be provided for these functions.

         They are supplied "as is", purely for the sake of interoperability.

         Use at your own risk. (You have been warned!)

       • First index

         ALL ranges in this module start with "1", NOT "0"!

         I.e., the day of month, day of week, day of year, month of year, week of year, first valid year  number
         and language ALL start counting at one, NOT zero!

         The  only exception is the function ""Week_Number()"", which may in fact return "0" when the given date
         actually lies in the last week of the PREVIOUS year, and of  course  the  numbers  for  hours  (0..23),
         minutes (0..59) and seconds (0..59).

       • Function naming conventions

         Function names completely in lower case indicate a boolean return value.

       • Boolean values

         Boolean values returned from functions in this module are always a numeric zero ("0") for "false" and a
         numeric one ("1") for "true".

       • Exception handling

         The  functions  in  this  module  will  usually  die  with a corresponding error message if their input
         parameters, intermediate results or output values are out of range.

         The following functions handle errors differently:

           -  check_date()
           -  check_time()
           -  check_business_date()
           -  check_compressed()

         (which return a "false" return value when the given input does not represent a valid date or time),

           -  Nth_Weekday_of_Month_Year()

         (which returns an empty list if the requested 5th day of week does not exist),

           -  Decode_Month()
           -  Decode_Day_of_Week()
           -  Decode_Language()
           -  Fixed_Window()
           -  Moving_Window()
           -  Compress()

         (which return "0" upon failure or invalid input), and

           -  Decode_Date_EU()
           -  Decode_Date_US()
           -  Decode_Date_EU2()
           -  Decode_Date_US2()
           -  Parse_Date()
           -  Uncompress()

         (which return an empty list upon failure or invalid input).

         Note that you can always catch an exception thrown by any of the functions in this module and handle it
         yourself by enclosing the function call in an ""eval"" with curly brackets  and  checking  the  special
         variable "$@" (see "eval" in perlfunc(1) for details).

DESCRIPTION

       • "use Date::Calc qw( Days_in_Year Days_in_Month ... );"

       • "use Date::Calc qw(:all);"

         You  can  either  specify  the  functions you want to import explicitly by enumerating them between the
         parentheses of the ""qw()"" operator, or you can use the "":all"" tag instead to import  ALL  available
         functions.

       • "$days = Days_in_Year($year,$month);"

         This  function  returns  the  sum  of  the number of days in the months starting with January up to and
         including "$month" in the given year "$year".

         I.e.,    ""Days_in_Year(1998,1)""    returns    "31",    ""Days_in_Year(1998,2)""     returns     "59",
         ""Days_in_Year(1998,3)"" returns "90", and so on.

         Note that ""Days_in_Year($year,12)"" returns the number of days in the given year "$year", i.e., either
         "365" or "366".

       • "$days = Days_in_Month($year,$month);"

         This function returns the number of days in the given month "$month" of the given year "$year".

         The year must always be supplied, even though it is only needed when the month is February, in order to
         determine whether it is a leap year or not.

         I.e.,    ""Days_in_Month(1998,1)""    returns    "31",    ""Days_in_Month(1998,2)""    returns    "28",
         ""Days_in_Month(2000,2)"" returns "29", ""Days_in_Month(1998,3)"" returns "31", and so on.

       • "$weeks = Weeks_in_Year($year);"

         This function returns the number of weeks in the given year "$year", i.e., either "52" or "53".

       • "if (leap_year($year))"

         This function returns "true" ("1") if the  given  year  "$year"  is  a  leap  year  and  "false"  ("0")
         otherwise.

       • "if (check_date($year,$month,$day))"

         This  function  returns  "true"  ("1") if the given three numerical values "$year", "$month" and "$day"
         constitute a valid date, and "false" ("0") otherwise.

       • "if (check_time($hour,$min,$sec))"

         This function returns "true" ("1") if the given three  numerical  values  "$hour",  "$min"  and  "$sec"
         constitute  a  valid time ("0 <= $hour < 24", "0 <= $min < 60" and "0 <= $sec < 60"), and "false" ("0")
         otherwise.

       • "if (check_business_date($year,$week,$dow))"

         This function returns "true" ("1") if the given three numerical  values  "$year",  "$week"  and  "$dow"
         constitute a valid date in business format, and "false" ("0") otherwise.

         Beware  that  this  function  does  NOT compute whether a given date is a business day (i.e., Monday to
         Friday)!

         To do so, use ""(Day_of_Week($year,$month,$day) < 6)"" instead.

       • "$doy = Day_of_Year($year,$month,$day);"

         This function returns the (relative) number of the day of the given date in the given year.

         E.g.,  ""Day_of_Year($year,1,1)""   returns   "1",   ""Day_of_Year($year,2,1)""   returns   "32",   and
         ""Day_of_Year($year,12,31)"" returns either "365" or "366".

         The  day  of year is sometimes also referred to as the Julian day (or date), although it has nothing to
         do with the Julian calendar, the calendar which was used before the Gregorian calendar.

         In order to convert the  number  returned  by  this  function  back  into  a  date,  use  the  function
         ""Add_Delta_Days()"" (described further below), as follows:

           $doy = Day_of_Year($year,$month,$day);
           ($year,$month,$day) = Add_Delta_Days($year,1,1, $doy - 1);

       • "$days = Date_to_Days($year,$month,$day);"

         This  function returns the (absolute) number of the day of the given date, where counting starts at the
         1st of January of the year 1 A.D.

         I.e.,    ""Date_to_Days(1,1,1)""    returns    "1",    ""Date_to_Days(1,12,31)""     returns     "365",
         ""Date_to_Days(2,1,1)"" returns "366", ""Date_to_Days(1998,5,1)"" returns "729510", and so on.

         This  is  sometimes  also referred to (not quite correctly) as the Julian date (or day). This may cause
         confusion, because also the number of the day in a year (from 1 to 365 or 366) is frequently called the
         "Julian day".

         More confusing still, this has nothing to do with the  Julian  calendar,  which  was  used  BEFORE  the
         Gregorian calendar.

         The  Julian  calendar  was  named after famous Julius Caesar, who had instituted it in Roman times. The
         Julian calendar is less precise than the Gregorian calendar because it has too many leap years compared
         to the true mean length of a year (but the Gregorian calendar also still has one  day  too  much  every
         5000  years). Anyway, the Julian calendar was better than what existed before, because rulers had often
         changed the calendar used until then in arbitrary ways, in order  to  lengthen  their  own  reign,  for
         instance.

         In  order  to  convert  the  number  returned  by  this  function  back  into  a date, use the function
         ""Add_Delta_Days()"" (described further below), as follows:

           $days = Date_to_Days($year,$month,$day);
           ($year,$month,$day) = Add_Delta_Days(1,1,1, $days - 1);

       • "$dow = Day_of_Week($year,$month,$day);"

         This function returns the number of the day of week of the given date.

         The function returns "1" for Monday, "2" for Tuesday and so on until "7" for Sunday.

         Note that in the Hebrew calendar (on which the Christian calendar  is  based),  the  week  starts  with
         Sunday  and  ends  with  the  Sabbath  or Saturday (where according to the Genesis (as described in the
         Bible) the Lord rested from creating the world).

         In medieval times, Catholic Popes have decreed the Sunday to be the official day of rest, in  order  to
         dissociate the Christian from the Hebrew belief.

         It  appears  that this actually happened with the Emperor Constantin, who converted to Christianity but
         still worshipped the Sun god and therefore moved the Christian sabbath to the day of the Sun.

         Nowadays, the Sunday AND the Saturday are commonly considered (and  used  as)  days  of  rest,  usually
         referred to as the "week-end".

         Consistent  with  this  practice,  current  norms  and standards (such as ISO/R 2015-1971, DIN 1355 and
         ISO 8601) define the Monday as the first day of the week.

       • "$week = Week_Number($year,$month,$day);"

         This function returns the number of the week the given date lies in.

         If the given date lies in the LAST week of the PREVIOUS year, "0" is returned.

         If the given date lies in the FIRST week of the NEXT year, ""Weeks_in_Year($year) + 1"" is returned.

       • "($week,$year) = Week_of_Year($year,$month,$day);"

         This function returns the number of the week the given date lies in, as well  as  the  year  that  week
         belongs to.

         I.e.,  if  the  given  date  lies  in  the  LAST  week of the PREVIOUS year, ""(Weeks_in_Year($year-1),
         $year-1)"" is returned.

         If the given date lies in the FIRST week of the NEXT year, ""(1, $year+1)"" is returned.

         Otherwise, ""(Week_Number($year,$month,$day), $year)"" is returned.

       • "$week = Week_of_Year($year,$month,$day);"

         In scalar context, this function returns just the week number. This  allows  you  to  write  ""$week  =
         Week_of_Year($year,$month,$day);""  instead of ""($week) = Week_of_Year($year,$month,$day);"" (note the
         parentheses around "$week").

         If the given date lies in the LAST week of the PREVIOUS year, ""Weeks_in_Year($year-1)"" is returned.

         If the given date lies in the FIRST week of the NEXT year, "1" is returned.

         Otherwise the return value is identical with that of ""Week_Number($year,$month,$day)"".

         BEWARE that using this function in scalar context is a DANGEROUS feature, because without knowing which
         year the week belongs to, you might inadvertently assume the wrong one!

         If for instance you are iterating through an interval of dates, you might assume that the  week  always
         belongs to the same year as the given date, which unfortunately is WRONG in some cases!

         In  many  years,  the  31st  of December for instance belongs to week number one of the FOLLOWING year.
         Assuming that the year is the same as your date (31st of December, in this example), sends you back  to
         the  first  week  of  the  CURRENT  year  - the Monday of which, by the way, in case of bad luck, might
         actually lie in the year BEFORE the current year!

         This actually happens in 2002, for example.

         So you always need to provide the correct corresponding year number by other means, keeping track of it
         yourself.

         In case you do not understand this, never mind, but then simply DO NOT  USE  this  function  in  scalar
         context!

       • "($year,$month,$day) = Monday_of_Week($week,$year);"

         This function returns the date of the first day of the given week, i.e., the Monday.

         "$year"  must  be  greater  than  or  equal  to  "1",  and  "$week"  must  lie  in  the  range  "1"  to
         ""Weeks_in_Year($year)"".

         Note that you can write ""($year,$month,$day) =  Monday_of_Week(Week_of_Year($year,$month,$day));""  in
         order to calculate the date of the Monday of the same week as the given date.

         If you want to calculate any other day of week in the same week as a given date, use

           @date = Add_Delta_Days(Monday_of_Week(Week_of_Year(@date)),$offset);

         where "$offset = 1" for Tuesday, 2 for Wednesday etc.

       • "if (($year,$month,$day) = Nth_Weekday_of_Month_Year($year,$month,$dow,$n))"

         This function calculates the date of the "$n"th day of week "$dow" in the given month "$month" and year
         "$year"; such as, for example, the 3rd Thursday of a given month and year.

         This  can  be used to send a notification mail to the members of a group which meets regularly on every
         3rd Thursday of a month, for instance.

         (See the section "RECIPES" near the end of this document for a code snippet to actually do so.)

         "$year" must be greater than or equal to "1", "$month" must lie in the range "1" to "12",  "$dow"  must
         lie  in  the  range  "1"  to  "7"  and  "$n"  must  lie in the range "1" to "5", or a fatal error (with
         appropriate error message) occurs.

         The function returns an empty list when the 5th of a given day of week does  not  exist  in  the  given
         month and year.

       • "($year,$week,$dow) = Standard_to_Business($year,$month,$day);"

         This  function  converts  a given date from standard notation (year, month, day (of month)) to business
         notation (year, week, day of week).

       • "($year,$month,$day) = Business_to_Standard($year,$week,$dow);"

         This function converts a given date from business notation  (year,  week,  day  of  week)  to  standard
         notation (year, month, day (of month)).

       • "$Dd = Delta_Days($year1,$month1,$day1, $year2,$month2,$day2);"

         This function returns the difference in days between the two given dates.

         The  result  is  positive  if  the  two  dates  are  in  chronological  order,  i.e.,  if date #1 comes
         chronologically BEFORE date #2, and negative if the order of the two dates is reversed.

         The result is zero if the two dates are identical.

       • "($Dd,$Dh,$Dm,$Ds)   =   Delta_DHMS($year1,$month1,$day1,   $hour1,$min1,$sec1,   $year2,$month2,$day2,
         $hour2,$min2,$sec2);"

         This  function  returns  the difference in days, hours, minutes and seconds between the two given dates
         with times.

         All four return values will be positive if the two dates are in chronological order, i.e., if  date  #1
         comes chronologically BEFORE date #2, and negative (in all four return values!) if the order of the two
         dates is reversed.

         This  is  so  that the two functions ""Delta_DHMS()"" and ""Add_Delta_DHMS()"" (description see further
         below) are complementary, i.e., mutually inverse:

           Add_Delta_DHMS(@date1,@time1, Delta_DHMS(@date1,@time1, @date2,@time2))

         yields ""(@date2,@time2)"" again, whereas

           Add_Delta_DHMS(@date2,@time2,
               map(-$_, Delta_DHMS(@date1,@time1, @date2,@time2)))

         yields ""(@date1,@time1)"", and

           Delta_DHMS(@date1,@time1, Add_Delta_DHMS(@date1,@time1, @delta))

         yields "@delta" again.

         The result is zero (in all four return values) if the two dates and times are identical.

       • "($Dy,$Dm,$Dd) = Delta_YMD($year1,$month1,$day1, $year2,$month2,$day2);"

         This function returns the vector

             ( $year2 - $year1, $month2 - $month1, $day2 - $day1 )

         This is called the "one-by-one" semantics.

         Adding the result of this function to the first date always yields the second date  again,  and  adding
         the  negative  result  (where  the signs of all elements of the result vector have been flipped) to the
         second date gives the first date. See also the description of the  function  "Add_Delta_YMD()"  further
         below.

         Example:

           (6,2,-30) == Delta_YMD(1996,1,31, 2002,3,1]);

           [1996,1,31] + ( 6, 2,-30) = [2002,3, 1]
           [2002,3, 1] + (-6,-2, 30) = [1996,1,31]

         An error occurs if any of the two given dates is invalid.

       • "($D_y,$D_m,$D_d,     $Dh,$Dm,$Ds)     =     Delta_YMDHMS($year1,$month1,$day1,     $hour1,$min1,$sec1,
         $year2,$month2,$day2, $hour2,$min2,$sec2);"

         This function is based on the  function  "Delta_YMD()"  above  but  additionally  calculates  the  time
         difference.  When  a  carry  over  from  the  time  difference  occurs, the value of "$D_d" is adjusted
         accordingly, thus giving the correct total date/time difference.

         Arguments are expected to be in chronological order to yield a (usually) positive result.

         In any case, adding the result of this function to the first date/time  value  ("$year1,$month1,$day1,"
         "$hour1,$min1,$sec1")    always    gives    the   second   date/time   value   ("$year2,$month2,$day2,"
         "$hour2,$min2,$sec2") again, and adding the negative result (with the signs  of  all  elements  of  the
         result vector flipped) to the second date/time value gives the first date/time value.

         See  the  function  "Add_Delta_YMDHMS()"  further  below  for  adding a date/time value and a date/time
         difference.

         An error occurs if any of the given two date/time values is invalid.

       • "($Dy,$Dm,$Dd) = N_Delta_YMD($year1,$month1,$day1, $year2,$month2,$day2);"

         This function returns the difference between the two given dates in a more intuitive  way  (as  far  as
         possible - more on that see a bit further below) than the function "Delta_YMD()" described above.

         The "N" which precedes its name is meant to signify "new" or "normalized".

         This  function  is loosely based on recipe #17 b) (see the section "RECIPES" below near the end of this
         document).

         However, the code of recipe #17 b) actually does not treat positive and negative  values  symmetrically
         and consistently.

         This new routine does.

         The  return  values  of this function are guaranteed to all have the same sign (or to be zero). This is
         why this function is called "normalized".

         Moreover, the results are guaranteed to be "minimal", in the sense that "|$Dm| < 12" and "|$Dd|  <  31"
         (which is equivalent to $Dm lying in the range "[-11..+11]" and $Dd lying in the range "[-30..+30]").

         When the results are applied (i.e., added) to the first given date in a left-to-right order, the second
         given  date  is guaranteed to be obtained, provided that intermediary results are truncated, as done by
         the function "Add_Delta_YM()" (see further below), i.e., that invalid intermediate dates such  as  e.g.
         [2009,2,31]  will automatically be transformed into [2009,2,28] (and not "wrapped" into the next month,
         e.g. to [2009,3,3]).

         This is called the "left-to-right with truncation" semantics.

         Note that reversing the order of the given dates and reversing the sign of each of  the  result  values
         will not always add up.

         Consider the dates [2008,2,29] and [2009,2,1]: their difference is (0,11,3) ([2008,2,29] plus 11 months
         is [2009,1,29], which plus 3 days is [2009,2,1]), but the difference between [2009,2,1] and [2008,2,29]
         is  (0,-11,-1),  and  not  (0,-11,-3) ([2009,2,1] minus 11 months is [2008,3,1], which minus one day is
         [2008,2,29]).

         Another example: The difference between [1996,2,29] and [1997,2,28] is (1,0,0) (observe the  truncation
         of  the  invalid date [1997,2,29] to [1997,2,28] here!), whereas the difference between [1997,2,28] and
         [1996,2,29] is (0,-11,-28) ([1997,2,28] minus 11 months is [1996,3,28], which  minus  28  days  is  not
         [1996,3,0] but of course [1996,2,29]).

         "Benign" examples such as for instance the difference between [1964,1,3] and [2009,9,10] are completely
         symmetrical: The difference in this example is (45,8,7), whereas the difference between [2009,9,10] and
         [1964,1,3]  is (-45,-8,-7), as would normally be expected. In this example, the result is also the same
         as the one returned by "Delta_YMD()".

         All these counter-intuitive effects are due to the fact that months (and due to leap years, also years)
         do not correspond to a fixed number of days, so the semantics of "plus one month" or  "plus  one  year"
         are in fact undefined.

         The  present function is an attempt to provide a definition which is intuitive most of the time, and at
         least consistent the rest of the time.

         Other definitions are of course possible, but most often lead to contradictions (e.g., the results  and
         the given first date do not add up to the second given date).

         See the file "datecalc.pl" in the "examples" subdirectory of this distribution for a way to play around
         with this function, or go to http://www.engelschall.com/u/sb/datecalc/ for the online version.

         An  error  occurs  if  any of the two given dates is invalid, or if any intermediate result leads to an
         invalid date (this does not apply to truncation, however, as explained above).

       • "($D_y,$D_m,$D_d,   $Dhh,$Dmm,$Dss)    =    N_Delta_YMDHMS($year1,$month1,$day1,    $hour1,$min1,$sec1,
         $year2,$month2,$day2, $hour2,$min2,$sec2);"

         This  function  essentially  does the same as the function "N_Delta_YMD()" described immediately above,
         except that also the difference in hours, minutes and seconds is taken into account.

         This function is loosely based on recipe #17 a) (see the section "RECIPES" below near the end  of  this
         document).

         However,  the  code of recipe #17 a) actually does not treat positive and negative values symmetrically
         and consistently.

         This new routine does.

         The return values of this function (including the time differences) are guaranteed to all have the same
         sign (or to be zero). This is the reason for the "N" that precedes the name of this function, which  is
         intended to mean "normalized" (or "new").

         Moreover,  the  results are guaranteed to be "minimal", in the sense that "|$D_m| < 12", "|$D_d| < 31",
         "|$Dhh| < 24", "|$Dmm| < 60" and "|$Dss| < 60"  (which  is  equivalent  to  $D_m  lying  in  the  range
         "[-11..+11]",  $D_d lying in the range "[-30..+30]", $Dhh lying in the range "[-23..+23]", and $Dmm and
         $Dss both lying in the range "[-59..+59]").

       • "($Dd,$Dh,$Dm,$Ds) = Normalize_DHMS($Dd,$Dh,$Dm,$Ds);"

         This function takes four arbitrary values  for  days,  hours,  minutes  and  seconds  (which  may  have
         different  signs)  and  renormalizes them so that the values for hours, minutes and seconds will lie in
         the ranges "[-23..23]", "[-59..59]" and "[-59..59]", respectively, and so that all four values have the
         same sign (or are zero).

         The given values are left untouched, i.e., unchanged.

       • "($year,$month,$day) = Add_Delta_Days($year,$month,$day, $Dd);"

         This function has two principal uses:

         First, it can be used to calculate a new date, given an initial  date  and  an  offset  (which  may  be
         positive  or  negative)  in  days,  in order to answer questions like "today plus 90 days -- which date
         gives that?".

         (In order to add a weeks offset, simply multiply the weeks offset with "7" and use that  as  your  days
         offset.)

         Second,  it can be used to convert the canonical representation of a date, i.e., the number of that day
         (where counting starts at the 1st of January in 1 A.D.), back into a date given as year, month and day.

         Because counting starts at "1", you will actually have to subtract "1" from the canonical date in order
         to get back the original date:

           $canonical = Date_to_Days($year,$month,$day);

           ($year,$month,$day) = Add_Delta_Days(1,1,1, $canonical - 1);

         Moreover, this function is the inverse of the function ""Delta_Days()"":

           Add_Delta_Days(@date1, Delta_Days(@date1, @date2))

         yields "@date2" again, whereas

           Add_Delta_Days(@date2, -Delta_Days(@date1, @date2))

         yields "@date1", and

           Delta_Days(@date1, Add_Delta_Days(@date1, $delta))

         yields "$delta" again.

       • "($year,$month,$day,    $hour,$min,$sec)    =    Add_Delta_DHMS($year,$month,$day,     $hour,$min,$sec,
         $Dd,$Dh,$Dm,$Ds);"

         This  function  serves  to  add  a days, hours, minutes and seconds offset to a given date and time, in
         order to answer questions like "today and now plus 7 days but minus 5 hours and then plus  30  minutes,
         what date and time gives that?":

           ($y,$m,$d,$H,$M,$S) = Add_Delta_DHMS(Today_and_Now(), +7,-5,+30,0);

       • "($year,$month,$day) = Add_Delta_YM($year,$month,$day, $Dy,$Dm);"

         This function can be used to add a year and/or month offset to a given date.

         In  contrast  to  the function described immediately below (""Add_Delta_YMD()""), this function does no
         "wrapping" into the next month if the day happens to lie outside the valid range for the resulting year
         and month (after adding the year and month offsets). Instead, it simply truncates the day to  the  last
         possible day of the resulting month.

         Examples:

         Adding  an  offset  of  0  years,  1  month  to the date [1999,1,31] would result in the (invalid) date
         [1999,2,31]. The function replaces this result by the (valid) date [1999,2,28].

         Adding an offset of 1 year, 1 month to the same date [1999,1,31] as above would result  in  the  (still
         invalid)  date  [2000,2,31].  The  function replaces this result by the valid date [2000,2,29] (because
         2000 is a leap year).

         Note that the year and month offsets can be negative, and that they can have different signs.

         If you want to additionally add a days offset, use the function ""Add_Delta_Days()""  before  or  after
         calling ""Add_Delta_YM()"":

           @date2 = Add_Delta_Days( Add_Delta_YM(@date1, $Dy,$Dm), $Dd );
           @date2 = Add_Delta_YM( Add_Delta_Days(@date1, $Dd), $Dy,$Dm );

         Note that your result may depend on the order in which you call these two functions!

         Consider the date [1999,2,28] and the offsets 0 years, 1 month and 1 day:

         [1999,2,28]  plus  one  month  is [1999,3,28], plus one day is [1999,3,29]. [1999,2,28] plus one day is
         [1999,3,1], plus one month is [1999,4,1].

         (Which is also the reason why the ""Add_Delta_YM()"" function does not allow one to add a days  offset,
         because  this  would  actually require TWO functions: One for adding the days offset BEFORE and one for
         adding it AFTER applying the year/month offsets.)

         An error occurs if the initial date is not valid.

         Note that ""Add_Delta_YM( Add_Delta_YM(@date, $Dy,$Dm), -$Dy,-$Dm );"" will not, in general, return the
         original date "@date" (consider the examples given above!).

       • "($year,$month,$day) = Add_Delta_YMD($year,$month,$day, $Dy,$Dm,$Dd);"

         This function serves to add a years, months and days offset to a given date.

         (In order to add a weeks offset, simply multiply the weeks offset with "7" and add this number to  your
         days offset.)

         Note  that the three offsets for years, months and days are applied independently from each other. This
         also allows them to have different signs.

         The years and months offsets are applied first, and the days offset is applied last.

         If the resulting date happens to fall on a day after the end of the resulting month, like the  32nd  of
         April  or  the  30th of February, then the date is simply counted forward into the next month (possibly
         also into the next year) by the number of excessive days (e.g., the 32nd of April will become  the  2nd
         of May).

         BEWARE that this behaviour differs from that of previous versions of this module! In previous versions,
         the day was simply truncated to the maximum number of days in the resulting month.

         If  you  want  the  previous  behaviour, use the new function ""Add_Delta_YM()"" (described immediately
         above) plus the function ""Add_Delta_Days()"" instead.

         BEWARE also that because a year and a month offset is not equivalent to a fixed  number  of  days,  the
         transformation performed by this function is NOT ALWAYS REVERSIBLE!

         This is in contrast to the functions ""Add_Delta_Days()"" and ""Add_Delta_DHMS()"", which are fully and
         truly reversible (with the help of the functions ""Delta_Days()"" and ""Delta_DHMS()"", for instance).

         Note that for this same reason,

           @date = Add_Delta_YMD(
                   Add_Delta_YMD(@date, $Dy,$Dm,$Dd), -$Dy,-$Dm,-$Dd);

         will in general NOT return the initial date "@date", even though

           @date2 = Add_Delta_YMD( @date1, Delta_YMD(@date1, @date2) );

         will always return the second date "@date2", and

           @date1 = Add_Delta_YMD( @date2, map(-$_, Delta_YMD(@date1, @date2)) );

         which is the same as

           @date1 = Add_Delta_YMD( @date2, Delta_YMD(@date2, @date1) );

         will always return the first date "@date1".

         Examples:

           [1996,1,31] + ( 6, 1,-2) = [2002,3,1]
           [2002,3, 1] + (-6,-1, 2) = [1996,2,3] # EXPECTED: [1996,1,31]

           (6,2,-30) == Delta_YMD(1996,1,31, 2002,3,1);

           [1996,1,31] + ( 6, 2,-30) = [2002,3, 1]
           [2002,3, 1] + (-6,-2, 30) = [1996,1,31] # OK

           (6,1,-2) == Delta_YMD(1996,2,3, 2002,3,1);

           [1996,2,3] + ( 6, 1,-2) = [2002,3,1]
           [2002,3,1] + (-6,-1, 2) = [1996,2,3] # OK

         Note  that  this  is NOT a program bug but NECESSARILY so, because of the variable lengths of years and
         months, and hence because of the ambiguity of the difference between  two  dates  in  terms  of  years,
         months and days, i.e., the fact that the difference between two dates can be expressed in more than one
         way:

           [1996,1,31] + (6,1, -2) = [2002,3,1]
           [1996,1,31] + (6,2,-30) = [2002,3,1]

       • "($year,$month,$day,    $hour,$min,$sec)    =    Add_Delta_YMDHMS($year,$month,$day,   $hour,$min,$sec,
         $D_y,$D_m,$D_d, $Dh,$Dm,$Ds);"

         Same as the function above, except that a time offset may be given in addition to the year,  month  and
         day offset.

       • "($year,$month,$day) = Add_N_Delta_YMD($year,$month,$day, $Dy,$Dm,$Dd);"

         This  function is actually a shortcut for applying the function "Add_Delta_YM()" first, followed by the
         function "Add_Delta_Days()", i.e., this function does exactly the same as

          ($year,$month,$day) = Add_Delta_Days( Add_Delta_YM($year,$month,$day,$Dy,$Dm), $Dd );

         Beware that, if necessary, the function "Add_Delta_YM()" truncates the resulting day of  the  month  to
         the  largest  allowable  value  for that month, i.e., the (invalid) result [2009,2,31] is automatically
         transformed into [2009,2,28].

         For more details on this truncation, see the  description  of  the  function  "Add_Delta_YM()"  further
         above.

         This function is meant to be complementary with the function "N_Delta_YMD()" described further above.

         This means that it is guaranteed that the result returned by

           Add_N_Delta_YMD( @date1, N_Delta_YMD(@date1, @date2) );

         is always identical with the given date "@date2".

         Note however that unlike with function "Add_Delta_YMD()", the reverse is not true here, i.e.,

           ($Dy,$Dm,$Dd) = N_Delta_YMD(@date1,@date2);
           @date = Add_N_Delta_YMD(@date2, -$Dy,-$Dm,-$Dd);

         will NOT always return the initial date "@date1".

         Example:

           (0,11,3) == N_Delta_YMD(2008,2,29, 2009,2,1);

           [2008,2,29] + (0, 11, 3) = [2009,2, 1]
           [2009,2, 1] + (0,-11,-3) = [2008,2,27] # EXPECTED: [2008,2,29]

       • "($year,$month,$day,    $hour,$min,$sec)   =   Add_N_Delta_YMDHMS($year,$month,$day,   $hour,$min,$sec,
         $D_y,$D_m,$D_d, $Dhh,$Dmm,$Dss);"

         This function essentially does the same  as  the  function  "Add_N_Delta_YMD()"  described  immediately
         above, except that also the difference in hours, minutes and seconds is taken into account.

       • "($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec, $doy,$dow,$dst) = System_Clock([$gmt]);"

         If  your  operating  system  supports the corresponding system calls (""time()"" and ""localtime()"" or
         ""gmtime()""), this function will return the information provided  by  your  system  clock,  i.e.,  the
         current  date  and  time,  the  number  of  the  day  of year, the number of the day of week and a flag
         signaling whether daylight savings time is currently in effect or not.

         The ranges of values returned (and their meanings) are as follows:

                 $year   :   1970..2038 (or more)  [Unix etc.]
                 $year   :   1904..2040            [MacOS Classic]

                 $month  :   1..12
                 $day    :   1..31
                 $hour   :   0..23
                 $min    :   0..59
                 $sec    :   0..59    (0..61 on some systems)
                 $doy    :   1..366
                 $dow    :   1..7
                 $dst    :  -1..1

         "$doy" is the day of year, sometimes also referred to as the "julian date", which  starts  at  "1"  and
         goes up to the number of days in that year.

         The day of week ("$dow") will be "1" for Monday, "2" for Tuesday and so on until "7" for Sunday.

         The  daylight  savings  time  flag ("$dst") will be ""-1"" if this information is not available on your
         system, "0" for no daylight savings time (i.e., winter time) and "1" when daylight savings time  is  in
         effect.

         If your operating system does not provide the necessary system calls, calling this function will result
         in a fatal "not available on this system" error message.

         If you want to handle this exception yourself, use ""eval"" as follows:

           eval { ($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec, $doy,$dow,$dst) =
             System_Clock(); };

           if ($@)
           {
               # Handle missing system clock
               # (For instance, ask user to enter this information manually)
           }

         Note that curlies ("{" and "}") are used here to delimit the statement to be "eval"ed (which is the way
         to catch exceptions in Perl), and not quotes (which is a way to evaluate Perl expressions at runtime).

         If the optional (boolean) input parameter "$gmt" is given, a "true" value ("1") will cause ""gmtime()""
         to  be  used  instead  of ""localtime()"", internally, thus returning Greenwich Mean Time (GMT, or UTC)
         instead of local time.

       • "($year,$month,$day) = Today([$gmt]);"

         This function returns a subset of the values returned by the function ""System_Clock()"" (see above for
         details), namely the current year, month and day.

         A fatal "not available on this system" error message will appear if the corresponding system calls  are
         not supported by your current operating system.

         If the optional (boolean) input parameter "$gmt" is given, a "true" value ("1") will cause ""gmtime()""
         to  be  used  instead  of ""localtime()"", internally, thus returning Greenwich Mean Time (GMT, or UTC)
         instead of local time.

       • "($hour,$min,$sec) = Now([$gmt]);"

         This function returns a subset of the values returned by the function ""System_Clock()"" (see above for
         details), namely the current time (hours, minutes and full seconds).

         A fatal "not available on this system" error message will appear if the corresponding system calls  are
         not supported by your current operating system.

         If the optional (boolean) input parameter "$gmt" is given, a "true" value ("1") will cause ""gmtime()""
         to  be  used  instead  of ""localtime()"", internally, thus returning Greenwich Mean Time (GMT, or UTC)
         instead of local time.

       • "($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec) = Today_and_Now([$gmt]);"

         This function returns a subset of the values returned by the function ""System_Clock()"" (see above for
         details), namely the current date (year, month, day) and time (hours, minutes and full seconds).

         A fatal "not available on this system" error message will appear if the corresponding system calls  are
         not supported by your current operating system.

         If the optional (boolean) input parameter "$gmt" is given, a "true" value ("1") will cause ""gmtime()""
         to  be  used  instead  of ""localtime()"", internally, thus returning Greenwich Mean Time (GMT, or UTC)
         instead of local time.

       • "$year = This_Year([$gmt]);"

         This function returns the current year, according to local time.

         A fatal "not available on this system" error message will appear if the corresponding system calls  are
         not supported by your current operating system.

         If the optional (boolean) input parameter "$gmt" is given, a "true" value ("1") will cause ""gmtime()""
         to  be  used  instead  of ""localtime()"", internally, thus returning Greenwich Mean Time (GMT, or UTC)
         instead of local time. However, this will only make a difference within a few  hours  around  New  Year
         (unless you are on a Pacific island, where this can be almost 24 hours).

       • "($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec, $doy,$dow,$dst) = Gmtime([time]);"

         This  is  Date::Calc's  equivalent  of  Perl's  built-in  "gmtime()"  function.   See  also "gmtime" in
         perlfunc(1).

         With the optional argument "time" (i.e., seconds since  the  epoch),  this  function  will  return  the
         corresponding  values  for  that  particular  time  (instead of the current time when this parameter is
         omitted).

         The ranges of values returned (and their meanings) are as follows:

                 $year   :   1970..2038 (or more)  [Unix etc.]
                 $year   :   1904..2040            [MacOS Classic]

                 $month  :   1..12
                 $day    :   1..31
                 $hour   :   0..23
                 $min    :   0..59
                 $sec    :   0..59
                 $doy    :   1..366
                 $dow    :   1..7
                 $dst    :  -1..1

         "$doy" is the day of year, sometimes also referred to as the "julian date", which  starts  at  "1"  and
         goes up to the number of days in that year.

         The day of week ("$dow") will be "1" for Monday, "2" for Tuesday and so on until "7" for Sunday.

         The  daylight  savings  time  flag ("$dst") will be ""-1"" if this information is not available on your
         system, "0" for no daylight savings time (i.e., winter time) and "1" when daylight savings time  is  in
         effect.

         A fatal "time out of range" error will occur if the given time value is out of range "[0..(~0>>1)]".

         If the time value is omitted, the "time()" function is called instead, internally.

       • "($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec, $doy,$dow,$dst) = Localtime([time]);"

         This  is  Date::Calc's  equivalent  of Perl's built-in "localtime()" function.  See also "localtime" in
         perlfunc(1).

         The ranges of values returned (and their meanings) are as follows:

                 $year   :   1970..2038 (or more)  [Unix etc.]
                 $year   :   1904..2040            [MacOS Classic]

                 $month  :   1..12
                 $day    :   1..31
                 $hour   :   0..23
                 $min    :   0..59
                 $sec    :   0..59
                 $doy    :   1..366
                 $dow    :   1..7
                 $dst    :  -1..1

         "$doy" is the day of year, sometimes also referred to as the "julian date", which  starts  at  "1"  and
         goes up to the number of days in that year.

         The day of week ("$dow") will be "1" for Monday, "2" for Tuesday and so on until "7" for Sunday.

         The  daylight  savings  time  flag ("$dst") will be ""-1"" if this information is not available on your
         system, "0" for no daylight savings time (i.e., winter time) and "1" when daylight savings time  is  in
         effect.

         A fatal "time out of range" error will occur if the given time value is out of range "[0..(~0>>1)]".

         If the time value is omitted, the "time()" function is called instead, internally.

       • "$time = Mktime($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec);"

         This function converts a date into a time value, i.e., into the number of seconds since whatever moment
         in  time  your system considers to be the "epoch". On Unix and most other systems this is the number of
         seconds since January 1st 1970 at midnight (GMT). On MacOS Classic this is the number of seconds  since
         January 1st 1904 at midnight (local time).

         The  function is similar to the "POSIX::mktime()" function (see "mktime" in POSIX(1) for more details),
         but in contrast to the latter, it expects dates in the usual ranges used throughout  this  module:  The
         year 2001 stays year 2001, and months are numbered from 1 to 12.

         A  fatal "date out of range" error will occur if the given date cannot be expressed in terms of seconds
         since the epoch (this happens for instance when the date lies before the epoch, or if it is later  than
         19-Jan-2038  03:14:07  GMT on 32 bit Unix systems, or later than 06-Feb-2040 06:28:15 (local time) on a
         Macintosh with MacOS Classic).

         Just like the "POSIX::mktime()" function, this function uses the "mktime()" system call, internally.

         This means that the given date and time is considered to be in local time, and that the value  returned
         by  this  function will depend on your machine's local settings such as the time zone, whether daylight
         savings time is (or was, at the time) in effect, and the system clock itself.

         BEWARE that "mktime()" does not always return the same time value as fed into "localtime()",  when  you
         feed the output of "localtime()" back into "mktime()", on some systems!

         I.e., ""Mktime((Localtime($time))[0..5])"" will not always return the same value as given in "$time"!

       • "($D_y,$D_m,$D_d, $Dh,$Dm,$Ds, $dst) = Timezone([time]);"

         This  function  returns  the  difference between ""localtime(time)"" and ""gmtime(time)"", which is the
         timezone offset in effect for the current location and the given ""time"".

         This offset is positive if you are located to the east of Greenwich, and is  usually  negative  (except
         during daylight savings time, in some locations) if you are located to the west of Greenwich.

         Note  that  this  offset  is  influenced  by all of the relevant system settings and parameters on your
         machine; such as locales, environment variables (e.g. ""TZ"") and the  system  clock  itself.  See  the
         relevant documentation on your system for more details.

         If  the  ""time"" is omitted, the ""time()"" function will be called automatically, internally (similar
         to the built-in functions ""localtime()"" and ""gmtime()"" in Perl).

         A fatal "time out of range" error will occur if the given time value is out of range "[0..(~0>>1)]".

         The last item of the returned list is a flag which indicates whether daylight savings time is currently
         in effect. This flag is negative (-1) if this information is not available on your system. It  is  zero
         (0) when daylight savings time is off, and positive (+1) when daylight savings time is on.

         Thus you can check very quickly whether daylight savings time is currently in effect by evaluating this
         function in scalar context (in scalar context, Perl returns the last item of a list):

           if (scalar Timezone > 0) { # yes, daylight savings time

         However, a slightly more efficient way would be this:

           if (scalar System_Clock > 0) { # yes, daylight savings time

       • "$time = Date_to_Time($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec);"

         This  function  is  a  replacement  for the BSD function "timegm()" (which is not available on all Unix
         systems), which converts a given date and time into a time value, i.e.,  into  the  number  of  seconds
         since  whatever  moment in time your system considers to be the "epoch". On Unix and most other systems
         this is the number of seconds since January 1st 1970 at midnight (GMT). On MacOS Classic  this  is  the
         number of seconds since January 1st 1904 at midnight (local time).

         Under  Unix, the date and time are considered to be in UTC ("Universal Time Coordinated", and so is the
         resulting time value.

         UTC is almost the same as GMT (or "Greenwich Mean Time"), except that UTC has leap seconds (in order to
         account for small variations in the rotation of the earth, for instance), whereas GMT does not.

         Under MacOS Classic, however, both input and output are considered to be in local time.

         The ranges of year and month follow the same rules as throughout the rest of this module (and  not  the
         contorted rules of its Unix equivalent), i.e., the year "2001" stays "2001" and the month ranges from 1
         to 12.

         A  fatal "date out of range" error will occur if the given date cannot be expressed in terms of seconds
         since the epoch (this happens for instance when the date lies before the epoch, or if it is later  than
         19-Jan-2038  03:14:07  GMT on 32 bit Unix systems, or later than 06-Feb-2040 06:28:15 (local time) on a
         Macintosh with MacOS Classic).

         This function should be very fast, because it is implemented  in  a  very  straightforward  manner  and
         doesn't use any internal system calls.

         Moreover, the functions "Date_to_Time()" and "Time_to_Date()" are guaranteed to be complementary, i.e.,
         that     ""Date_to_Time(Time_to_Date($time))""    and    ""Time_to_Date(Date_to_Time($year,$month,$day,
         $hour,$min,$sec))"" will always return the initial values.

       • "($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec) = Time_to_Date([time]);"

         This function is an alternative to the POSIX "gmtime()" function (and its  built-in  Perl  equivalent),
         which  converts  a  given time value into the corresponding date and time. The given time value must be
         the number of seconds since whatever moment in time your system considers to be the  "epoch".  On  Unix
         and most other systems this is the number of seconds since January 1st 1970 at midnight (GMT). On MacOS
         Classic this is the number of seconds since January 1st 1904 at midnight (local time).

         Under  Unix,  the  given time value is considered to be in UTC ("Universal Time Coordinated", and so is
         the resulting date and time.

         UTC is almost the same as GMT (or "Greenwich Mean Time"), except that UTC has leap seconds (in order to
         account for small variations in the rotation of the earth, for instance), whereas GMT does not.

         Under MacOS Classic, however, both input and output are considered to be in local time.

         If the input value  ""time""  is  omitted,  the  ""time()""  function  will  be  called  automatically,
         internally (similar to the built-in functions ""localtime()"" and ""gmtime()"" in Perl).

         A fatal "time out of range" error will occur if the given time value is negative.

         This  function  should  be  very  fast,  because it is implemented in a very straightforward manner and
         doesn't use any internal system calls (except for "time()", if the input value is omitted).

         Moreover, the functions "Date_to_Time()" and "Time_to_Date()" are guaranteed to be complementary, i.e.,
         that    ""Date_to_Time(Time_to_Date($time))""    and     ""Time_to_Date(Date_to_Time($year,$month,$day,
         $hour,$min,$sec))"" will always return the initial values.

       • "($year,$month,$day) = Easter_Sunday($year);"

         This  function  calculates  the date of Easter Sunday for all years in the range from 1583 to 2299 (all
         other year numbers will result in a fatal "year out of range" error message) using the method known  as
         the "Gaussian Rule".

         Some related christian feast days which depend on the date of Easter Sunday:

           Carnival Monday / Rosenmontag / Veille du Mardi Gras   =  -48 days
           Mardi Gras / Karnevalsdienstag / Mardi Gras            =  -47 days
           Ash Wednesday / Aschermittwoch / Mercredi des Cendres  =  -46 days
           Palm Sunday / Palmsonntag / Dimanche des Rameaux       =   -7 days
           Easter Friday / Karfreitag / Vendredi Saint            =   -2 days
           Easter Saturday / Ostersamstag / Samedi de Paques      =   -1 day
           Easter Monday / Ostermontag / Lundi de Paques          =   +1 day
           Ascension of Christ / Christi Himmelfahrt / Ascension  =  +39 days
           Whitsunday / Pfingstsonntag / Dimanche de Pentecote    =  +49 days
           Whitmonday / Pfingstmontag / Lundi de Pentecote        =  +50 days
           Feast of Corpus Christi / Fronleichnam / Fete-Dieu     =  +60 days

         Use the offsets shown above to calculate the date of the corresponding feast day as follows:

           ($year,$month,$day) = Add_Delta_Days(Easter_Sunday($year), $offset));

       • "if ($month = Decode_Month($string[,$lang]))"

         This  function takes a string as its argument, which should contain the name of a month in the given or
         currently selected language (see further below for details about the  multi-language  support  of  this
         package), or any uniquely identifying abbreviation of a month's name (i.e., the first few letters), and
         returns  the  corresponding  number  (1..12)  upon a successful match, or "0" otherwise (therefore, the
         return value can also be used as the conditional expression in an "if" statement).

         Note that the input string may not contain any other characters which do not  pertain  to  the  month's
         name, especially no leading or trailing whitespace.

         Note  also  that  matching  is  performed in a case-insensitive manner (this may depend on the "locale"
         setting on your current system, though!)

         With "1" ("English") as the given language, the following examples will all return the value "9":

           $month = Decode_Month("s",1);
           $month = Decode_Month("Sep",1);
           $month = Decode_Month("septemb",1);
           $month = Decode_Month("September",1);

       • "if ($dow = Decode_Day_of_Week($string[,$lang]))"

         This function takes a string as its argument, which should contain the name of a day  of  week  in  the
         given or currently selected language (see further below for details about the multi-language support of
         this  package),  or any uniquely identifying abbreviation of the name of a day of week (i.e., the first
         few letters), and returns the corresponding number (1..7) upon a successful  match,  or  "0"  otherwise
         (therefore, the return value can also be used as the conditional expression in an "if" statement).

         Note that the input string may not contain any other characters which do not pertain to the name of the
         day of week, especially no leading or trailing whitespace.

         Note  also  that  matching  is  performed in a case-insensitive manner (this may depend on the "locale"
         setting on your current system, though!)

         With "1" ("English") as the given language, the following examples will all return the value "3":

           $dow = Decode_Day_of_Week("w",1);
           $dow = Decode_Day_of_Week("Wed",1);
           $dow = Decode_Day_of_Week("wednes",1);
           $dow = Decode_Day_of_Week("Wednesday",1);

       • "if ($lang = Decode_Language($string))"

         This function takes a string as its argument, which should contain the name of  one  of  the  languages
         supported  by  this package (IN THIS VERY LANGUAGE ITSELF), or any uniquely identifying abbreviation of
         the name of a language (i.e., the first few letters), and returns  its  corresponding  internal  number
         (1..14  in  the original distribution) upon a successful match, or "0" otherwise (therefore, the return
         value can also be used as the conditional expression in an "if" statement).

         Note that the input string may not contain any other characters which do not pertain to the name  of  a
         language, especially no leading or trailing whitespace.

         Note  also  that  matching  is  performed in a case-insensitive manner (this may depend on the "locale"
         setting on your current system, though!)

         The original distribution supports the following fourteen languages:

                     English                    ==>    1    (default)
                     Français    (French)       ==>    2
                     Deutsch     (German)       ==>    3
                     Español     (Spanish)      ==>    4
                     Português   (Portuguese)   ==>    5
                     Nederlands  (Dutch)        ==>    6
                     Italiano    (Italian)      ==>    7
                     Norsk       (Norwegian)    ==>    8
                     Svenska     (Swedish)      ==>    9
                     Dansk       (Danish)       ==>   10
                     suomi       (Finnish)      ==>   11
                     Magyar      (Hungarian)    ==>   12
                     polski      (Polish)       ==>   13
                     Romaneste   (Romanian)     ==>   14

         See the section "How to install additional languages" in the file "INSTALL.txt"  in  this  distribution
         for how to add more languages to this package.

         In the original distribution (no other languages installed), the following examples will all return the
         value "3":

           $lang = Decode_Language("d");
           $lang = Decode_Language("de");
           $lang = Decode_Language("Deutsch");

         Note  that  you may not be able to enter the special international characters in some of the languages'
         names over the keyboard directly on some systems.

         This should never be a problem, though; just  enter  an  abbreviation  of  the  name  of  the  language
         consisting  of  the  first  few  letters  up  to  the  character before the first special international
         character.

       • "if (($year,$month,$day) = Decode_Date_EU($string[,$lang]))"

         This function scans a given string and tries to parse any date which might be embedded in it.

         The function returns an empty list if it can't successfully extract a valid date from its input string,
         or else it returns the date found.

         The function accepts almost any format, as long as the date is given in the european order  (hence  its
         name) day-month-year.

         Thereby, zero or more NON-NUMERIC characters may PRECEDE the day and FOLLOW the year.

         Moreover,  zero  or  more  NON-ALPHANUMERIC  characters  are permitted BETWEEN these three items (i.e.,
         between day and month and between month and year).

         The month may be given either numerically (i.e., a number from "1" to "12"), or alphanumerically, i.e.,
         as the name of the month in the given or currently  selected  language,  or  any  uniquely  identifying
         abbreviation thereof.

         (See further below for details about the multi-language support of this package!)

         If  the year is given as one or two digits only (i.e., if the year is less than 100), it is mapped to a
         "window" of +/- 50 years around the current year, as described by the "Moving_Window()"  function  (see
         further below).

         If  the  day,  month  and  year are all given numerically but WITHOUT any delimiting characters between
         them, this string of digits will be mapped to the day, month and year as follows:

                         Length:        Mapping:
                           3              dmy
                           4              dmyy
                           5              dmmyy
                           6              ddmmyy
                           7              dmmyyyy
                           8              ddmmyyyy

         (Where "d" stands for "day", "m" stands for "month" and "y" stands for "year".)

         All other strings consisting purely of digits (without any intervening delimiters) are rejected,  i.e.,
         not recognized.

         Examples:

           "3.1.64"
           "3 1 64"
           "03.01.64"
           "03/01/64"
           "3. Jan 1964"
           "Birthday: 3. Jan '64 in Backnang/Germany"
           "03-Jan-64"
           "3.Jan1964"
           "3Jan64"
           "030164"
           "3ja64"
           "3164"

         Experiment!  (See  the  corresponding  example  applications  in  the  "examples"  subdirectory of this
         distribution in order to do so.)

       • "if (($year,$month,$day) = Decode_Date_US($string[,$lang]))"

         This function scans a given string and tries to parse any date which might be embedded in it.

         The function returns an empty list if it can't successfully extract a valid date from its input string,
         or else it returns the date found.

         The function accepts almost any format, as long as the date is given in the U.S. american order  (hence
         its name) month-day-year.

         Thereby,  zero  or more NON-ALPHANUMERIC characters may PRECEDE and FOLLOW the month (i.e., precede the
         month and separate it from the day which follows behind).

         Moreover, zero or more NON-NUMERIC characters are permitted BETWEEN the day and the year,  as  well  as
         AFTER the year.

         The month may be given either numerically (i.e., a number from "1" to "12"), or alphanumerically, i.e.,
         as  the  name  of  the  month  in the given or currently selected language, or any uniquely identifying
         abbreviation thereof.

         (See further below for details about the multi-language support of this package!)

         If the year is given as one or two digits only (i.e., if the year is less than 100), it is mapped to  a
         "window"  of  +/- 50 years around the current year, as described by the "Moving_Window()" function (see
         further below).

         If the month, day and year are all given numerically but  WITHOUT  any  delimiting  characters  between
         them, this string of digits will be mapped to the month, day and year as follows:

                         Length:        Mapping:
                           3              mdy
                           4              mdyy
                           5              mddyy
                           6              mmddyy
                           7              mddyyyy
                           8              mmddyyyy

         (Where "m" stands for "month", "d" stands for "day" and "y" stands for "year".)

         All  other strings consisting purely of digits (without any intervening delimiters) are rejected, i.e.,
         not recognized.

         If only the day and the year form a contiguous string of digits, they will be mapped as follows:

                         Length:        Mapping:
                           2              dy
                           3              dyy
                           4              ddyy
                           5              dyyyy
                           6              ddyyyy

         (Where "d" stands for "day" and "y" stands for "year".)

         Examples:

           "1 3 64"
           "01/03/64"
           "Jan 3 '64"
           "Jan 3 1964"
           "===> January 3rd 1964 (birthday)"
           "Jan31964"
           "Jan364"
           "ja364"
           "1364"

         Experiment! (See the  corresponding  example  applications  in  the  "examples"  subdirectory  of  this
         distribution in order to do so.)

       • "$year = Fixed_Window($yy);"

         This function applies a "fixed window" strategy to two-digit year numbers in order to convert them into
         four-digit year numbers.

         All  other year numbers are passed through unchanged, except for negative year numbers, which cause the
         function to return zero ("0") instead.

         Two-digit year numbers ""yy"" below 70 are converted to ""20yy"", whereas  year  numbers  equal  to  or
         greater than 70 (but less than 100) are converted to ""19yy"".

         In  the  original  distribution of this package, the base century is set to "1900" and the base year to
         "70" (which is a standard on UNIX systems), but these constants (also called the "epoch") can  actually
         be chosen at will (in the files "DateCalc.c" and "DateCalc.h") at compile time of this module.

       • "$year = Moving_Window($yy);"

         This  function  applies  a  "moving window" strategy to two-digit year numbers in order to convert them
         into four-digit year numbers, provided  the  necessary  system  calls  (system  clock)  are  available.
         Otherwise the function falls back to the "fixed window" strategy described in the function above.

         All  other year numbers are passed through unchanged, except for negative year numbers, which cause the
         function to return zero ("0") instead.

         Two-digit year numbers are mapped according to a "window" of 50 years  in  both  directions  (past  and
         future) around the current year.

         That  is,  two-digit  year  numbers  are  first  mapped to the same century as the current year. If the
         resulting year is smaller than the current year minus 50, then one more century is added to the result.
         If the resulting year is equal to or greater  than  the  current  year  plus  50,  then  a  century  is
         subtracted from the result.

       • "$date = Compress($year,$month,$day);"

         WARNING: This function is legacy code, its use is deprecated!

         This function encodes a date in 16 bits, which is the value being returned.

         The encoding scheme is as follows:

                     Bit number:    FEDCBA9 8765 43210
                     Contents:      yyyyyyy mmmm ddddd

         (Where  the  "yyyyyyy"  contain  the number of the year, "mmmm" the number of the month and "ddddd" the
         number of the day.)

         The function returns "0" if the given input values do not represent a valid date. Therefore, the return
         value of this function can also be used as the conditional expression in an "if" statement, in order to
         check whether the given input values constitute a valid date).

         Through this special encoding scheme, it is possible to COMPARE compressed dates for equality and order
         (less than/greater than) WITHOUT any previous DECODING!

         Note however that contiguous dates do NOT necessarily have contiguous compressed representations!

         I.e., incrementing the compressed representation of a date MAY OR MAY NOT yield a valid new date!

         Note also that this function can only handle dates within one century.

         This century can be chosen at will (at compile time of this module) by defining a base century and year
         (also called the "epoch"). In the original distribution of this package, the base  century  is  set  to
         "1900" and the base year to "70" (which is standard on UNIX systems).

         This allows this function to handle dates from "1970" up to "2069".

         If  the given year is equal to, say, "95", this package will automatically assume that you really meant
         "1995" instead. However, if you specify a year  number  which  is  SMALLER  than  70,  like  "64",  for
         instance, this package will assume that you really meant "2064".

         You are not confined to two-digit (abbreviated) year numbers, though.

         The  function  also  accepts  "full-length" year numbers, provided that they lie in the supported range
         (i.e., from "1970" to "2069", in the original configuration of this package).

         Note that this function is maintained mainly for backward  compatibility,  and  that  its  use  is  not
         recommended.

       • "if (($century,$year,$month,$day) = Uncompress($date))"

         WARNING: This function is legacy code, its use is deprecated!

         This function decodes dates that were encoded previously using the function ""Compress()"".

         It  returns  the  century,  year,  month and day of the date encoded in "$date" if "$date" represents a
         valid date, or an empty list otherwise.

         The year returned in "$year" is actually a two-digit year number (i.e., the year  number  taken  modulo
         100),  and  only the expression ""$century + $year"" yields the "full-length" year number (for example,
         "1900 + 95 = 1995").

         Note that this function is maintained mainly for backward  compatibility,  and  that  its  use  is  not
         recommended.

       • "if (check_compressed($date))"

         WARNING: This function is legacy code, its use is deprecated!

         This  function  returns  "true" ("1") if the given input value constitutes a valid compressed date, and
         "false" ("0") otherwise.

         Note that this function is maintained mainly for backward  compatibility,  and  that  its  use  is  not
         recommended.

       • "$string = Compressed_to_Text($date[,$lang]);"

         WARNING: This function is legacy code, its use is deprecated!

         This  function  returns  a  string  of  fixed  length  (always  9 characters long) containing a textual
         representation of the compressed date encoded in "$date".

         This string has the form "dd-Mmm-yy", where "dd" is the two-digit number of  the  day,  "Mmm"  are  the
         first  three  letters of the name of the month in the given or currently selected language (see further
         below for details about the multi-language support of this package), and "yy"  is  the  two-digit  year
         number (i.e., the year number taken modulo 100).

         If "$date" does not represent a valid date, the string "??-???-??" is returned instead.

         Note  that  this  function  is  maintained  mainly  for backward compatibility, and that its use is not
         recommended.

       • "$string = Date_to_Text($year,$month,$day[,$lang]);"

         This function returns a string containing a textual representation of the given date of the  form  "www
         dd-Mmm-yyyy",  where  "www"  are the first three letters of the name of the day of week in the given or
         currently selected language, or a special abbreviation, if special abbreviations have been defined  for
         the  given  or  currently  selected  language  (see  further below for details about the multi-language
         support of this package), "dd" is the day (one or two digits), "Mmm" are the first three letters of the
         name of the month in the given or currently selected language, and "yyyy" is the number of the year  in
         full length.

         If the given input values do not constitute a valid date, a fatal "not a valid date" error occurs.

         (See  the  section "RECIPES" near the end of this document for a code snippet for how to print dates in
         any format you like.)

       • "$string = Date_to_Text_Long($year,$month,$day[,$lang]);"

         This function returns a string containing a textual representation of the given  date  roughly  of  the
         form  "Wwwwww, dd Mmmmmm yyyy", where "Wwwwww" is the name of the day of week in the given or currently
         selected language (see further below for details about the multi-language  support  of  this  package),
         "dd"  is  the  day  (one  or  two  digits), "Mmmmmm" is the name of the month in the given or currently
         selected language, and "yyyy" is the number of the year in full length.

         The exact format of the output string depends on the given  or  currently  selected  language.  In  the
         original distribution of this package, these formats are defined as follows:

           1  English    :  "Wwwwww, Mmmmmm ddth yyyy"
           2  French     :  "Wwwwww dd mmmmmm yyyy"
           3  German     :  "Wwwwww, den dd. Mmmmmm yyyy"
           4  Spanish    :  "Wwwwww, dd de mmmmmm de yyyy"
           5  Portuguese :  "Wwwwww, dia dd de mmmmmm de yyyy"
           6  Dutch      :  "Wwwwww, dd mmmmmm yyyy"
           7  Italian    :  "Wwwwww, dd Mmmmmm yyyy"
           8  Norwegian  :  "wwwwww, dd. mmmmmm yyyy"
           9  Swedish    :  "wwwwww, dd mmmmmm yyyy"
          10  Danish     :  "wwwwww, dd. mmmmmm yyyy"
          11  Finnish    :  "wwwwww, dd. mmmmmmta yyyy"
          12  Hungarian  :  "dd. Mmmmmm yyyy., wwwwww"
          13  Polish     :  "Wwwwww, dd Mmmmmm yyyy"
          14  Romanian   :  "Wwwwww dd Mmmmmm yyyy"

         (You  can  change  these  formats in the file "DateCalc.c" before building this module in order to suit
         your personal preferences.)

         If the given input values do not constitute a valid date, a fatal "not a valid date" error occurs.

         In  order  to  capitalize  the  day  of  week  at  the  beginning  of  the  string  in  Norwegian,  use
         ""ucfirst(Date_to_Text_Long($year,$month,$day,8));"".

         (See  the  section  "RECIPES" near the end of this document for an example on how to print dates in any
         format you like.)

       • "$string = English_Ordinal($number);"

         This function returns a string containing the (english) abbreviation of  the  ordinal  number  for  the
         given (cardinal) number "$number".

         I.e.,

             0  =>  '0th'    10  =>  '10th'    20  =>  '20th'
             1  =>  '1st'    11  =>  '11th'    21  =>  '21st'
             2  =>  '2nd'    12  =>  '12th'    22  =>  '22nd'
             3  =>  '3rd'    13  =>  '13th'    23  =>  '23rd'
             4  =>  '4th'    14  =>  '14th'    24  =>  '24th'
             5  =>  '5th'    15  =>  '15th'    25  =>  '25th'
             6  =>  '6th'    16  =>  '16th'    26  =>  '26th'
             7  =>  '7th'    17  =>  '17th'    27  =>  '27th'
             8  =>  '8th'    18  =>  '18th'    28  =>  '28th'
             9  =>  '9th'    19  =>  '19th'    29  =>  '29th'

         etc.

       • "$string = Calendar($year,$month[,$orthodox[,$lang]]);"

         This  function  returns  a  calendar of the given month in the given year (somewhat similar to the UNIX
         ""cal"" command), in the given or currently selected language (see further below for details about  the
         multi-language support of this package).

         Example:

           print Calendar(1998,5);

         This will print:

                    May 1998
           Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
                             1   2   3
             4   5   6   7   8   9  10
            11  12  13  14  15  16  17
            18  19  20  21  22  23  24
            25  26  27  28  29  30  31

         If  the optional boolean parameter "$orthodox" is given and true, the calendar starts on Sunday instead
         of Monday.

       • "$string = Month_to_Text($month[,$lang]);"

         This function returns the name of the given month in the given  or  currently  selected  language  (see
         further below for details about the multi-language support of this package).

         If the given month lies outside of the valid range from "1" to "12", a fatal "month out of range" error
         will occur.

       • "$string = Day_of_Week_to_Text($dow[,$lang]);"

         This  function  returns  the  name of the given day of week in the given or currently selected language
         (see further below for details about the multi-language support of this package).

         If the given day of week lies outside of the valid range from "1" to "7", a fatal "day of week  out  of
         range" error will occur.

       • "$string = Day_of_Week_Abbreviation($dow[,$lang]);"

         This  function  returns  the special abbreviation of the name of the given day of week, IF such special
         abbreviations have been defined for the given or currently selected language  (see  further  below  for
         details about the multi-language support of this package).

         (In the original distribution of this package, this was only true for Portuguese. Starting with version
         5.1,  abbreviations  for Polish have also been introduced. Starting with version 5.7, the abbreviations
         for Portuguese have been disabled. So Polish is currently the only  language  to  define  such  special
         abbreviations.)

         If  not,  the  first  three  letters  of the name of the day of week in the given or currently selected
         language are returned instead.

         If the given day of week lies outside of the valid range from "1" to "7", a fatal "day of week  out  of
         range" error will occur.

         Currently,  this  table  of  special abbreviations is only used by the functions ""Date_to_Text()"" and
         ""Calendar()"", internally.

       • "$string = Language_to_Text($lang);"

         This function returns the name of any language supported by  this  package  when  the  internal  number
         representing that language is given as input.

         The original distribution supports the following fourteen languages:

                     1   ==>   English                     (default)
                     2   ==>   Français    (French)
                     3   ==>   Deutsch     (German)
                     4   ==>   Español     (Spanish)
                     5   ==>   Português   (Portuguese)
                     6   ==>   Nederlands  (Dutch)
                     7   ==>   Italiano    (Italian)
                     8   ==>   Norsk       (Norwegian)
                     9   ==>   Svenska     (Swedish)
                    10   ==>   Dansk       (Danish)
                    11   ==>   suomi       (Finnish)
                    12   ==>   Magyar      (Hungarian)
                    13   ==>   polski      (Polish)
                    14   ==>   Romaneste   (Romanian)

         See  the  section  "How to install additional languages" in the file "INSTALL.txt" in this distribution
         for how to add more languages to this package.

         See the description of the function ""Languages()"" further below to determine how many  languages  are
         actually available in a given installation of this package.

       • "$lang = Language();"

       • "Language($lang); # DEPRECATED"

       • "$oldlang = Language($newlang); # DEPRECATED"

         This function can be used to determine which language is currently selected, and to change the selected
         language  (this  latter  use  is  deprecated,  because  this global setting may cause conflicts between
         threads or modules running concurrently).

         Thereby, each language has a unique internal number.

         The original distribution contains the following fourteen languages:

                     1   ==>   English                     (default)
                     2   ==>   Français    (French)
                     3   ==>   Deutsch     (German)
                     4   ==>   Español     (Spanish)
                     5   ==>   Português   (Portuguese)
                     6   ==>   Nederlands  (Dutch)
                     7   ==>   Italiano    (Italian)
                     8   ==>   Norsk       (Norwegian)
                     9   ==>   Svenska     (Swedish)
                    10   ==>   Dansk       (Danish)
                    11   ==>   suomi       (Finnish)
                    12   ==>   Magyar      (Hungarian)
                    13   ==>   polski      (Polish)
                    14   ==>   Romaneste   (Romanian)

         See the section "How to install additional languages" in the file "INSTALL.txt"  in  this  distribution
         for how to add more languages to this package.

         See  the  description of the function ""Languages()"" further below to determine how many languages are
         actually available in a given installation of this package.

         BEWARE that in order for your programs to be portable, you  should  NEVER  actually  use  the  internal
         number of a language in this package EXPLICITLY, because the same number could mean different languages
         on  different  systems,  depending  on what languages have been added to any given installation of this
         package.

         Therefore, you should always use a statement such as

           Language(Decode_Language("Name_of_Language")); # DEPRECATED

         or

           DateCalc_Function(@parameters,Decode_Language("Name_of_Language")); # RECOMMENDED

         to select the desired language, and

           $language = Language_to_Text(Language());

         or

           $old_language = Language_to_Text(Language("Name_of_new_Language")); # DEPRECATED

         to determine the (previously) selected language.

         If the so chosen language is not available  in  the  current  installation,  this  will  result  in  an
         appropriate  error message, instead of silently using the wrong (a random) language (which just happens
         to have the same internal number in the other installation).

         BEWARE that when using the function ""Language()"", the selected language is a global  setting,  shared
         by  all  threads  or modules you might be running concurrently, thus possibly causing conflicts between
         them.

         In order to avoid these conflicts, you should NEVER use the function ""Language()"", but should  ALWAYS
         pass  a  language number (as returned by the function ""Decode_Language()"") to the functions which are
         language-dependent, which are:

         "Decode_Month()",       "Decode_Day_of_Week()",        "Compressed_to_Text()",        "Date_to_Text()",
         "Date_to_Text_Long()",         "Calendar()",         "Month_to_Text()",        "Day_of_Week_to_Text()",
         "Day_of_Week_Abbreviation()",     "Decode_Date_EU()",     "Decode_Date_US()",      "Decode_Date_EU2()",
         "Decode_Date_US2()", "Parse_Date()".

         Note  that  when  you pass an invalid number, such as e.g. zero, or no language parameter at all, these
         functions will revert to their behaviour in the versions of this module prior to 6.0, which means  that
         the  global  setting  (as  set  by  ""Language()"") becomes active again (only in case of an invalid or
         missing language parameter!).

         In the C library "DateCalc.c", where omitting a parameter is not an option,  passing  a  zero  for  the
         language is therefore the recommended way to guarantee backward compatibility.

       • "$max_lang = Languages();"

         This  function  returns  the  (maximum)  number  of  languages  which  are  currently available in your
         installation of this package.

         (This may vary from installation to installation.)

         See the section "How to install additional languages" in the file "INSTALL.txt"  in  this  distribution
         for how to add more languages to this package.

         In the original distribution of this package there are fourteen built-in languages, therefore the value
         returned  by  this  function  will  be  "14"  if  no other languages have been added to your particular
         installation.

       • "if (($year,$month,$day) = Decode_Date_EU2($string[,$lang))"

         This function is the Perl equivalent of the function ""Decode_Date_EU()"" (implemented in C),  included
         here  merely  as  an  example  to  demonstrate  how easy it is to write your own routine in Perl (using
         regular expressions) adapted to your own special  needs,  should  the  necessity  arise,  and  intended
         primarily as a basis for your own development.

         In one particular case this Perl version is actually slightly more permissive than its C equivalent, as
         far as the class of permitted intervening (i.e., delimiting) characters is concerned.

         (Can  you tell the subtle, almost insignificant difference by looking at the code? Or by experimenting?
         Hint: Try the string "a3b1c64d" with both functions.)

       • "if (($year,$month,$day) = Decode_Date_US2($string[,$lang))"

         This function is the Perl equivalent of the function ""Decode_Date_US()"" (implemented in C),  included
         here  merely  as  an  example  to  demonstrate  how easy it is to write your own routine in Perl (using
         regular expressions) adapted to your own special  needs,  should  the  necessity  arise,  and  intended
         primarily as a basis for your own development.

         In one particular case this Perl version is actually slightly more permissive than its C equivalent.

         (Hint:  This  is the same difference as with the ""Decode_Date_EU()"" and ""Decode_Date_EU2()"" pair of
         functions.)

         In a different case, the C version is a little bit more permissive than its Perl equivalent.

         (Can you tell the difference by looking at the  code?  Or  by  experimenting?   Hint:  Try  the  string
         "(1/364)" with both functions.)

       • "if (($year,$month,$day) = Parse_Date($string[,$lang))"

         This  function  is useful for parsing dates as returned by the UNIX ""date"" command or as found in the
         headers of e-mail (in order to determine the date at which some e-mail has been sent or  received,  for
         instance).

         Example #1:

           ($year,$month,$day) = Parse_Date(`/bin/date`);

         Example #2:

           while (<MAIL>)
           {
               if (/^From \S/)
               {
                   ($year,$month,$day) = Parse_Date($_);
                   ...
               }
               ...
           }

         The function returns an empty list if it can't extract a valid date from the input string.

       • "$lower = ISO_LC($string);"

         Returns  a  copy  of  the  given  string  where  all letters of the ISO-Latin-1 character set have been
         replaced by their lower case equivalents.

         Similar to Perl's built-in function ""lc()"" (see "lc" in perlfunc(1)) but for  the  whole  ISO-Latin-1
         character set, not just plain ASCII.

       • "$upper = ISO_UC($string);"

         Returns  a  copy  of  the  given  string  where  all letters of the ISO-Latin-1 character set have been
         replaced by their upper case equivalents.

         Similar to Perl's built-in function ""uc()"" (see "uc" in perlfunc(1)) but for  the  whole  ISO-Latin-1
         character set, not just plain ASCII.

       • "$string = Date::Calc::Version();"

         This function returns a string with the (numeric) version number of the C library ("DateCalc.c") at the
         core of this package (which is also (automatically) the version number of the "Calc.xs" file).

         Note that under all normal circumstances, this version number should be identical with the one found in
         the Perl variable "$Date::Calc::VERSION" (the version number of the "Calc.pm" file).

         Since   this   function   is   not   exported,   you  always  have  to  qualify  it  explicitly,  i.e.,
         ""Date::Calc::Version()"".

         This is to avoid possible name space conflicts with version functions from other modules.

RECIPES

       1)  How do I compare two dates?

           Solution #1:

             use Date::Calc qw( Date_to_Days );

             if (Date_to_Days($year1,$month1,$day1)  <
                 Date_to_Days($year2,$month2,$day2))

             if (Date_to_Days($year1,$month1,$day1)  <=
                 Date_to_Days($year2,$month2,$day2))

             if (Date_to_Days($year1,$month1,$day1)  >
                 Date_to_Days($year2,$month2,$day2))

             if (Date_to_Days($year1,$month1,$day1)  >=
                 Date_to_Days($year2,$month2,$day2))

             if (Date_to_Days($year1,$month1,$day1)  ==
                 Date_to_Days($year2,$month2,$day2))

             if (Date_to_Days($year1,$month1,$day1)  !=
                 Date_to_Days($year2,$month2,$day2))

             $cmp = (Date_to_Days($year1,$month1,$day1)  <=>
                     Date_to_Days($year2,$month2,$day2));

           Solution #2:

             use Date::Calc qw( Delta_Days );

             if (Delta_Days($year1,$month1,$day1,
                            $year2,$month2,$day2) > 0)

             if (Delta_Days($year1,$month1,$day1,
                            $year2,$month2,$day2) >= 0)

             if (Delta_Days($year1,$month1,$day1,
                            $year2,$month2,$day2) < 0)

             if (Delta_Days($year1,$month1,$day1,
                            $year2,$month2,$day2) <= 0)

             if (Delta_Days($year1,$month1,$day1,
                            $year2,$month2,$day2) == 0)

             if (Delta_Days($year1,$month1,$day1,
                            $year2,$month2,$day2) != 0)

       2)  How do I check whether a given date lies within a certain range of dates?

             use Date::Calc qw( Date_to_Days );

             $lower = Date_to_Days($year1,$month1,$day1);
             $upper = Date_to_Days($year2,$month2,$day2);

             $date = Date_to_Days($year,$month,$day);

             if (($date >= $lower) && ($date <= $upper))
             {
                 # ok
             }
             else
             {
                 # not ok
             }

       3)  How do I compare two dates with times? How do I check whether two dates and times lie  more  or  less
           than a given time interval apart?

           Solution #1:

             use Date::Calc qw( Add_Delta_DHMS Date_to_Days );

             @date1 = (2002,8,31,23,59,1);
             @date2 = (2002,9,1,11,30,59); # ==> less than 12 hours

             #@date1 = (2002,8,31,22,59,1);
             #@date2 = (2002,9,1,11,30,59); # ==> more than 12 hours

             # Omit the next line if you just want to compare the two dates
             # (and change @date3 and @d3 to @date1 and @d1, respectively):

             @date3 = Add_Delta_DHMS(@date1, 0,12,0,0); # ==> is the difference within 12 hours?

             @d2 = ( Date_to_Days(@date2[0..2]), ($date2[3]*60+$date2[4])*60+$date2[5] );
             @d3 = ( Date_to_Days(@date3[0..2]), ($date3[3]*60+$date3[4])*60+$date3[5] );

             @diff = ( $d2[0]-$d3[0], $d2[1]-$d3[1] );

             if ($diff[0] > 0 and $diff[1] < 0) { $diff[0]--; $diff[1] += 86400; }
             if ($diff[0] < 0 and $diff[1] > 0) { $diff[0]++; $diff[1] -= 86400; }

             if (($diff[0] || $diff[1]) >= 0) { print "More than 12 hours.\n"; }
             else                             { print "Less than 12 hours.\n"; }

           Solution #2:

           This  solution  is  only  feasible if your dates are guaranteed to lie within the range given by your
           system's epoch and overflow date and time!

                Unix:    1-Jan-1970 00:00:00  to  19-Jan-2038 03:14:07
                MacOS:   1-Jan-1904 00:00:00  to   6-Feb-2040 06:28:15

             use Date::Calc qw( Date_to_Time );

             @date1 = (2002,8,31,23,59,1);
             @date2 = (2002,9,1,11,30,59); # ==> less than 12 hours

             #@date1 = (2002,8,31,22,59,1);
             #@date2 = (2002,9,1,11,30,59); # ==> more than 12 hours

             $d1 = Date_to_Time(@date1);
             $d2 = Date_to_Time(@date2);

             if ($d1 <= $d2) { print "The two dates are in chronological order.\n"; }
             else            { print "The two dates are in reversed order.\n"; }

             if ($d1 + 12*60*60 <= $d2) { print "More than 12 hours.\n"; }
             else                       { print "Less than 12 hours.\n"; }

       4)  How do I verify whether someone has a certain age?

             use Date::Calc qw( Decode_Date_EU Today leap_year Delta_Days );

             $date = <STDIN>; # get birthday

             ($year1,$month1,$day1) = Decode_Date_EU($date);

             ($year2,$month2,$day2) = Today();

             if (($day1 == 29) && ($month1 == 2) && !leap_year($year2))
                 { $day1--; }

             if ( (($year2 - $year1) >  18) ||
                ( (($year2 - $year1) == 18) &&
                (Delta_Days($year2,$month1,$day1, $year2,$month2,$day2) >= 0) ) )
             {
                 print "Ok - you are over 18.\n";
             }
             else
             {
                 print "Sorry - you aren't 18 yet!\n";
             }

             Or, alternatively (substituting the last "if" statement above):

             if (($year1+18 <=> $year2 || $month1 <=> $month2 || $day1 <=> $day2) <= 0)
                 { print "Ok - you are over 18.\n"; }
             else
                 { print "Sorry - you aren't 18 yet!\n"; }

       5)  How do I calculate the number of the week of month the current date lies in?

           For example:

                       April 1998
               Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
                         1   2   3   4   5  =  week #1
                 6   7   8   9  10  11  12  =  week #2
                13  14  15  16  17  18  19  =  week #3
                20  21  22  23  24  25  26  =  week #4
                27  28  29  30              =  week #5

           Solution:

             use Date::Calc qw( Today Day_of_Week );

             ($year,$month,$day) = Today();

             $week = int(($day + Day_of_Week($year,$month,1) - 2) / 7) + 1;

       6)  How do I calculate whether a given date is the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th of that day of week  in  the
           given month?

           For example:

                      October 2000
               Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
                                         1
                 2   3   4   5   6   7   8
                 9  10  11  12  13  14  15
                16  17  18  19  20  21  22
                23  24  25  26  27  28  29
                30  31

           Is Sunday, the 15th of October 2000, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th Sunday of that month?

           Solution:

             use Date::Calc qw( Day_of_Week Delta_Days
                                Nth_Weekday_of_Month_Year
                                Date_to_Text_Long English_Ordinal
                                Day_of_Week_to_Text Month_to_Text );

             ($year,$month,$day) = (2000,10,15);

             $dow = Day_of_Week($year,$month,$day);

             $n = int( Delta_Days(
                       Nth_Weekday_of_Month_Year($year,$month,$dow,1),
                       $year,$month,$day)
                       / 7) + 1;

             printf("%s is the %s %s in %s %d.\n",
                 Date_to_Text_Long($year,$month,$day),
                 English_Ordinal($n),
                 Day_of_Week_to_Text($dow),
                 Month_to_Text($month),
                 $year);

           This prints:

             Sunday, October 15th 2000 is the 3rd Sunday in October 2000.

       7)  How do I calculate the date of the Wednesday of the same week as the current date?

           Solution #1:

             use Date::Calc qw( Today Day_of_Week Add_Delta_Days );

             $searching_dow = 3; # 3 = Wednesday

             @today = Today();

             $current_dow = Day_of_Week(@today);

             @date = Add_Delta_Days(@today, $searching_dow - $current_dow);

           Solution #2:

             use Date::Calc qw( Today Add_Delta_Days
                                Monday_of_Week Week_of_Year );

             $searching_dow = 3; # 3 = Wednesday

             @today = Today();

             @date = Add_Delta_Days( Monday_of_Week( Week_of_Year(@today) ),
                                     $searching_dow - 1 );

           Solution #3:

             use Date::Calc qw( Standard_to_Business Today
                                Business_to_Standard );

             @business = Standard_to_Business(Today());

             $business[2] = 3; # 3 = Wednesday

             @date = Business_to_Standard(@business);

       8)  How can I add a week offset to a business date (including across year boundaries)?

             use Date::Calc qw( Business_to_Standard Add_Delta_Days
                                Standard_to_Business );

             @temp = Business_to_Standard($year,$week,$dow);

             @temp = Add_Delta_Days(@temp, $week_offset * 7);

             ($year,$week,$dow) = Standard_to_Business(@temp);

       9)  How do I calculate the last and the next Saturday for any given date?

             use Date::Calc qw( Today Day_of_Week Add_Delta_Days
                                Day_of_Week_to_Text Date_to_Text );

             $searching_dow = 6; # 6 = Saturday

             @today = Today();

             $current_dow = Day_of_Week(@today);

             if ($searching_dow == $current_dow)
             {
                 @prev = Add_Delta_Days(@today,-7);
                 @next = Add_Delta_Days(@today,+7);
             }
             else
             {
                 if ($searching_dow > $current_dow)
                 {
                     @next = Add_Delta_Days(@today,
                               $searching_dow - $current_dow);
                     @prev = Add_Delta_Days(@next,-7);
                 }
                 else
                 {
                     @prev = Add_Delta_Days(@today,
                               $searching_dow - $current_dow);
                     @next = Add_Delta_Days(@prev,+7);
                 }
             }

             $dow = Day_of_Week_to_Text($searching_dow);

             print "Today is:      ", ' ' x length($dow),
                                          Date_to_Text(@today), "\n";
             print "Last $dow was:     ", Date_to_Text(@prev),  "\n";
             print "Next $dow will be: ", Date_to_Text(@next),  "\n";

           This will print something like:

             Today is:              Sun 12-Apr-1998
             Last Saturday was:     Sat 11-Apr-1998
             Next Saturday will be: Sat 18-Apr-1998

       10) How can I calculate the last business day (payday!) of a month?

           Solution #1 (holidays NOT taken into account):

             use Date::Calc qw( Days_in_Month Day_of_Week Add_Delta_Days );

             $day = Days_in_Month($year,$month);
             $dow = Day_of_Week($year,$month,$day);
             if ($dow > 5)
             {
                 ($year,$month,$day) =
                     Add_Delta_Days($year,$month,$day, 5-$dow);
             }

           Solution #2 (holidays taken into account):

           This  solution expects a multi-dimensional array "@holiday", which contains all holidays, as follows:
           ""$holiday[$year][$month][$day] = 1;"".

           (See the description of the function ""Easter_Sunday()"" further  above  for  how  to  calculate  the
           moving (variable) christian feast days!)

           Days which are not holidays remain undefined or should have a value of zero in this array.

             use Date::Calc qw( Days_in_Month Add_Delta_Days Day_of_Week );

             $day = Days_in_Month($year,$month);
             while (1)
             {
                 while ($holiday[$year][$month][$day])
                 {
                     ($year,$month,$day) =
                         Add_Delta_Days($year,$month,$day, -1);
                 }
                 $dow = Day_of_Week($year,$month,$day);
                 if ($dow > 5)
                 {
                     ($year,$month,$day) =
                         Add_Delta_Days($year,$month,$day, 5-$dow);
                 }
                 else { last; }
             }

           Solution  #3  (holidays  taken  into  account,  more  comfortable, but requires Date::Calendar(3) and
           Date::Calc::Object(3)):

             use Date::Calc::Object qw( Today Add_Delta_YM Date_to_Text_Long );
             use Date::Calendar::Profiles qw($Profiles);
             use Date::Calendar;

             $calendar = Date::Calendar->new( $Profiles->{'DE-BW'} );

             @today = Today();
             @nextmonth = Add_Delta_YM(@today[0,1],1, 0,1);

             $workaround = $calendar->add_delta_workdays(@nextmonth,+1);
             $payday     = $calendar->add_delta_workdays($workaround,-2);

             print "Pay day = ", Date_to_Text_Long($payday->date()), "\n";

           The "workaround" is necessary due to a  bug  in  the  method  "add_delta_workdays()"  when  adding  a
           negative number of workdays.

       11) How do I convert a MS Visual Basic "DATETIME" value into its date and time constituents?

             use Date::Calc qw( Add_Delta_DHMS Date_to_Text );

             $datetime = "35883.121653";

             ($Dd,$Dh,$Dm,$Ds) = ($datetime =~ /^(\d+)\.(\d\d)(\d\d)(\d\d)$/);

             ($year,$month,$day, $hour,$min,$sec) =
                 Add_Delta_DHMS(1900,1,1, 0,0,0, $Dd,$Dh,$Dm,$Ds);

             printf("The given date is %s %02d:%02d:%02d\n",
                 Date_to_Text($year,$month,$day), $hour, $min, $sec);

           This prints:

             The given date is Tue 31-Mar-1998 12:16:53

           Since  I  do  not  have or use Visual Basic, I can't guarantee that the number format assumed here is
           really the one used by Visual Basic - but you get the general idea. ":-)"

           Moreover, consider the following:

           Morten Sickel <Morten.Sickel@nrpa.no> wrote:

           I discovered a bug in Excel (2000): Excel thinks  that  1900  was  a  leap  year.  Users  should  use
           31-Dec-1899 as the date to add an Excel date value to in order to get the correct date.

           I  found  out on the web that this bug originated in Lotus 123, which made 29-Feb-1900 an "industrial
           standard". MS chose to keep the bug in order to be compatible with  Lotus  123.  But  they  have  not
           mentioned anything about it in the help files.

       12) How  can I send a reminder to members of a group on the day before a meeting which occurs every first
           Friday of a month?

             use Date::Calc qw( Today Date_to_Days Add_Delta_YMD
                                Nth_Weekday_of_Month_Year );

             ($year,$month,$day) = Today();

             $tomorrow = Date_to_Days($year,$month,$day) + 1;

             $dow = 5; # 5 = Friday
             $n   = 1; # 1 = First of that day of week

             $meeting_this_month = Date_to_Days(
                 Nth_Weekday_of_Month_Year($year,$month,$dow,$n) );

             ($year,$month,$day) = Add_Delta_YMD($year,$month,$day, 0,1,0);

             $meeting_next_month = Date_to_Days(
                 Nth_Weekday_of_Month_Year($year,$month,$dow,$n) );

             if (($tomorrow == $meeting_this_month) ||
                 ($tomorrow == $meeting_next_month))
             {
                 # Send reminder e-mail!
             }

       13) How can I print a date in a different format  than  provided  by  the  functions  ""Date_to_Text()"",
           ""Date_to_Text_Long()"" or ""Compressed_to_Text()""?

             use Date::Calc qw( Today Day_of_Week_to_Text
                                Day_of_Week Month_to_Text
                                English_Ordinal );

             ($year,$month,$day) = Today();

           For example with leading zeros for the day: "Fri 03-Jan-1964"

             printf("%.3s %02d-%.3s-%d\n",
                 Day_of_Week_to_Text(Day_of_Week($year,$month,$day)),
                 $day,
                 Month_to_Text($month),
                 $year);

           For example in U.S. american format: "April 12th, 1998"

             $string = sprintf("%s %s, %d",
                           Month_to_Text($month),
                           English_Ordinal($day),
                           $year);

           For example in one of the possible formats as specified by ISO 8601:

             @date = ($year,$month,$day,$hour,$min,$sec);
             $date = sprintf("%d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d:%02d", @date);

           (See also "printf" in perlfunc(1) and/or "sprintf" in perlfunc(1)!)

       14) How can I iterate through a range of dates?

             use Date::Calc qw( Delta_Days Add_Delta_Days );

             @start = (1999,5,27);
             @stop  = (1999,6,1);

             $j = Delta_Days(@start,@stop);

             for ( $i = 0; $i <= $j; $i++ )
             {
                 @date = Add_Delta_Days(@start,$i);
                 printf("%4d/%02d/%02d\n", @date);
             }

           Note that the loop can be improved; see also the recipe below.

       15) How can I create a (Perl) list of dates in a certain range?

             use Date::Calc qw( Delta_Days Add_Delta_Days Date_to_Text );

             sub date_range
             {
                 my(@date) = (@_)[0,1,2];
                 my(@list);
                 my($i);

                 $i = Delta_Days(@_);
                 while ($i-- >= 0)
                 {
                     push( @list, [ @date ] );
                     @date = Add_Delta_Days(@date, 1) if ($i >= 0);
                 }
                 return(@list);
             }

             @range = &date_range(1999,11,3, 1999,12,24); # in chronological order

             foreach $date (@range)
             {
                 print Date_to_Text(@{$date}), "\n";
             }

           Note  that  you probably shouldn't use this one, because it is much more efficient to iterate through
           all the dates (as shown in the recipe immediately above) than to construct such an array and then  to
           loop through it. Also, it is much more space-efficient not to create this array.

       16) How can I calculate the difference in days between dates, but without counting Saturdays and Sundays?

             sub Delta_Business_Days
             {
                 my(@date1) = (@_)[0,1,2];
                 my(@date2) = (@_)[3,4,5];
                 my($minus,$result,$dow1,$dow2,$diff,$temp);

                 $minus  = 0;
                 $result = Delta_Days(@date1,@date2);
                 if ($result != 0)
                 {
                     if ($result < 0)
                     {
                         $minus = 1;
                         $result = -$result;
                         $dow1 = Day_of_Week(@date2);
                         $dow2 = Day_of_Week(@date1);
                     }
                     else
                     {
                         $dow1 = Day_of_Week(@date1);
                         $dow2 = Day_of_Week(@date2);
                     }
                     $diff = $dow2 - $dow1;
                     $temp = $result;
                     if ($diff != 0)
                     {
                         if ($diff < 0)
                         {
                             $diff += 7;
                         }
                         $temp -= $diff;
                         $dow1 += $diff;
                         if ($dow1 > 6)
                         {
                             $result--;
                             if ($dow1 > 7)
                             {
                                 $result--;
                             }
                         }
                     }
                     if ($temp != 0)
                     {
                         $temp /= 7;
                         $result -= ($temp << 1);
                     }
                 }
                 if ($minus) { return -$result; }
                 else        { return  $result; }
             }

           This  solution is probably of little practical value, however, because it doesn't take legal holidays
           into account.

           See Date::Calendar(3) for how to do that.

       17) How can I "normalize" the output of the "Delta_YMDHMS()"  (or  "Delta_YMD()")  function  so  that  it
           contains only positive values?

           I.e.,  how  can  I show a difference in date (and time) in a more human-readable form, for example in
           order to show how much time until (or since) the expiration of something (e.g. an account, a  domain,
           a credit card, etc.) is left (has passed)?

           Correct solution: Use the functions "N_Delta_YMDHMS()" and "N_Delta_YMD()" instead!

           The following gives a rudimentary sketch of a (much inferior) solution, which is maintained here only
           for historical reasons of this module:

           a) Delta_YMDHMS():

             #!perl
             use strict;
             use Date::Calc qw(Today_and_Now Delta_YMDHMS Add_Delta_YMDHMS Delta_DHMS Date_to_Text);

             my $today = [Today_and_Now()];
             my $target = [2005,1,1,0,0,0];

             my $sign = "until";
             my $delta = Normalize_Delta_YMDHMS($today,$target);
             if ($delta->[0] < 0)
             {
                 $sign = "since";
                 $delta = Normalize_Delta_YMDHMS($target,$today);
             }
             printf("Today is %s %02d:%02d:%02d\n", Date_to_Text(@{$today}[0..2]), @{$today}[3..5]);
             printf
             (
                 "%d year%s, %d month%s, %d day%s, %d hour%s, %d minute%s, %d second%s %s %s %02d:%02d:%02d\n",
                 $delta->[0], (($delta->[0]==1)?'':'s'),
                 $delta->[1], (($delta->[1]==1)?'':'s'),
                 $delta->[2], (($delta->[2]==1)?'':'s'),
                 $delta->[3], (($delta->[3]==1)?'':'s'),
                 $delta->[4], (($delta->[4]==1)?'':'s'),
                 $delta->[5], (($delta->[5]==1)?'':'s'),
                 $sign,
                 Date_to_Text(@{$target}[0..2]),
                 @{$target}[3..5]
             );

             sub Normalize_Delta_YMDHMS
             {
                 my($date1,$date2) = @_;
                 my(@delta);

                 @delta = Delta_YMDHMS(@$date1,@$date2);
                 while ($delta[1] < 0 or
                        $delta[2] < 0 or
                        $delta[3] < 0 or
                        $delta[4] < 0 or
                        $delta[5] < 0)
                 {
                     if ($delta[1] < 0) { $delta[0]--; $delta[1] += 12; }
                     if ($delta[2] < 0)
                     {
                         $delta[1]--;
                         @delta[2..5] = (0,0,0,0);
                         @delta[2..5] = Delta_DHMS(Add_Delta_YMDHMS(@$date1,@delta),@$date2);
                     }
                     if ($delta[3] < 0) { $delta[2]--; $delta[3] += 24; }
                     if ($delta[4] < 0) { $delta[3]--; $delta[4] += 60; }
                     if ($delta[5] < 0) { $delta[4]--; $delta[5] += 60; }
                 }
                 return \@delta;
             }

           b) Delta_YMD():

             #!perl
             use strict;
             use Date::Calc qw(Today Delta_YMD Add_Delta_YM Delta_Days Date_to_Text);

             my($sign,$delta);
             my $today = [Today()];
             my $target = [2005,1,1];

             if (Delta_Days(@$today,@$target) < 0)
             {
                 $sign = "since";
                 $delta = Normalize_Delta_YMD($target,$today);
             }
             else
             {
                 $sign = "until";
                 $delta = Normalize_Delta_YMD($today,$target);
             }
             print "Today is ", Date_to_Text(@$today), "\n";
             printf
             (
                 "%d year%s, %d month%s, %d day%s %s %s\n",
                 $delta->[0], (($delta->[0]==1)?'':'s'),
                 $delta->[1], (($delta->[1]==1)?'':'s'),
                 $delta->[2], (($delta->[2]==1)?'':'s'),
                 $sign,
                 Date_to_Text(@$target)
             );

             sub Normalize_Delta_YMD
             {
                 my($date1,$date2) = @_;
                 my(@delta);

                 @delta = Delta_YMD(@$date1,@$date2);
                 while ($delta[1] < 0 or $delta[2] < 0)
                 {
                     if ($delta[1] < 0) { $delta[0]--; $delta[1] += 12; }
                     if ($delta[2] < 0)
                     {
                         $delta[1]--;
                         $delta[2] = Delta_Days(Add_Delta_YM(@$date1,@delta[0,1]),@$date2);
                     }
                 }
                 return \@delta;
             }

           Note  that  for normalizing just a time vector, you can use the built-in function "Normalize_DHMS()".
           However, this will yield either all positive OR all negative  values,  NOT  all  positive  values  as
           above.

SEE ALSO

       Date::Calc::Util(3),       Date::Calc::Object(3),       Date::Calendar(3),       Date::Calendar::Year(3),
       Date::Calendar::Profiles(3).

         "The Calendar FAQ":
         http://www.tondering.dk/claus/calendar.html
         by Claus Tondering <claus@tondering.dk>

BEWARE

       When you are using the (deprecated) function "Language()", the language setting is  stored  in  a  global
       variable.

       This may cause conflicts between threads or modules running concurrently.

       Therefore,  in  order  to  avoid  such  conflicts, NEVER use the function "Language()", but ALWAYS pass a
       language parameter to the functions which are language-dependent.

VERSION

       This man page documents "Date::Calc" version 6.4.

AUTHOR

         Steffen Beyer
         mailto:STBEY@cpan.org
         http://www.engelschall.com/u/sb/download/

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 1995 - 2015 by Steffen Beyer. All rights reserved.

LICENSE

       This package is free software; you can use, modify and redistribute it  under  the  same  terms  as  Perl
       itself, i.e., at your option, under the terms either of the "Artistic License" or the "GNU General Public
       License".

       The  C library at the core of the module "Date::Calc::XS" can, at your discretion, also be used, modified
       and redistributed under the terms of the "GNU Library General Public License".

       Please refer to the files "Artistic.txt", "GNU_GPL.txt" and "GNU_LGPL.txt" in the "license"  subdirectory
       of this distribution for any details!

DISCLAIMER

       This  package  is  distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even
       the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

       See the "GNU General Public License" for more details.

perl v5.34.0                                       2022-06-13                                    Date::Calc(3pm)