Provided by: libdate-extract-perl_0.07-1_all bug

NAME

       Date::Extract - Extract probable dates from strings

VERSION

       version 0.07

SYNOPSIS

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

MOTIVATION

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

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

METHODS

   "new(PARAMHASH)" => "Date::Extract"
       arguments

       format
           Choose  what  format  the  extracted  date(s)  will  be. The default is "DateTime", which will return
           DateTime object(s). Other option include "verbatim" (return the original text),  or  "epoch"  (return
           Unix timestamp).

       time_zone
           Only relevant when "format" is set to "DateTime".

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

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

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

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

           nearest
               Prefer the nearest date. This is the default.

           future
               Prefer the closest future date.

           past
               Prefer the closest past date. NOT YET SUPPORTED.

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

           first
               Returns the first date found in the string.

           last
               Returns the final date found in the string.

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

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

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

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

   "extract(text, ARGS) =" dates
       Takes  an  arbitrary amount of text and extracts one or more dates from it. The return value will be zero
       or more dates, which by default are DateTime objects (but can be customized with the "format"  argument).
       If called in scalar context, only one will be returned, even if the "returns" argument specifies multiple
       possible return values.

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

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

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

FORMATS HANDLED

       •   "today"; "tomorrow"; "yesterday"

       •   "last Friday"; "next Monday"; "previous Sat"

       •   "Monday"; "Mon"

       •   "November 13th, 1986"; "Nov 13, 1986"

       •   "13 November 1986"; "13 Nov 1986"

       •   "November 13th"; "Nov 13"

       •   "13 Nov"; "13th November"

       •   "1986/11/13"; "1986-11-13"

       •   "11-13-86"; "11/13/1986"

CAVEATS

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

SEE ALSO

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

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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

SUPPORT

       Bugs may be submitted through the RT bug tracker <https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Date-
       Extract> (or bug-Date-Extract@rt.cpan.org <mailto:bug-Date-Extract@rt.cpan.org>).

       I am also usually active on irc, as 'ether' at "irc.perl.org" and "irc.libera.chat".

AUTHOR

       Shawn M Moore, <sartak@gmail.com>

CONTRIBUTORS

       •   Karen Etheridge <ether@cpan.org>

       •   Steven Haryanto <stevenharyanto@gmail.com>

       •   Jim Brandt <jbrandt@bestpractical.com>

       •   Alex Vandiver <alex@chmrr.net>

       •   Jesse Vincent <jesse@bestpractical.com>

       •   Thomas Sibley <trs@bestpractical.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

       This software is copyright (c) 2007 by Best Practical Solutions.

       This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under  the  same  terms  as  the  Perl  5
       programming language system itself.

perl v5.36.0                                       2023-01-23                                 Date::Extract(3pm)