format_time [FMT [TIME [TZMIN]]]

NAME

Date::TimeFormat - Timestamp formating functions

SYNOPSIS

  use Date::TimeFormat;
  print format_time(), "\n";

DESCRIPTION

This module provides functions to format unix timestamp (number of seconds since the epoch, that is 1970-01-01 00:00:00 GMT) into string.

Please, note this module was created with 5 purposes in mind: work with integer timestamp (and not with array of 9 integers like POSIX::strftime), have sane defaults (i.e. 2006-07-31 and not confusing 03/02/01 for the date part ``%x''), support new specifier ``%o'' (time age), be light and produce locale-independent results.

If you need more robust time-date functions, take a look at other modules.

EXPORTING

By default, function format_time is exported. If desired, you may specify any other function name(s) to be exported instead, and work just like format_time:

  use Date::TimeFormat qw(strftime);

  use Date::TimeFormat qw(time2str);

Additionally, you may also export function time_age($time), that returns the same as format_time("%o", $time), just without trailing `` ago'':

  use Date::TimeFormat qw(format_time time_age);

FUNCTIONS

format_time [FMT [TIME [TZMIN]]]

usage

  my $local_time_str = format_time();

  print format_time("Universal Time: %c GMT", time, 0);

description

Returns current date string. Almost equivalent to C function the strftime(3) manpage and POSIX::strftime, see man pages. Specifiers not supported: %G %U %W %Z %z.

Specifiers contradicting to POSIX::strftime:

  FORMAT   POSIX          Date::TimeFormat
    %c    %a %b %e %T %Y   %a %d %b %Y %T
    %D    mm/dd/yy         dd/mm/yy
    %x    mm/dd/yy         yyyy-mm-dd
    %U    real week num    0
    %W    real week num    0
    %z    real time zone   +0099
    %Z    real time zone   XXT
    %o    INVALID          12 days ago

parameters

  * optional time format string; default is '%x %X'
  * optional timestamp (number of seconds since the Epoch)
  * optional timezone offset in minutes or +NNNN/-NNNN format
    (0 or '+0000' or '-0000' all mean 'GMT'),
    by default the current timezone (i.e. local time) is assumed

returns

Interpolated time string.

FORMAT SPECIFIERS

  %%    a literal %
  %a    day of the week, abbreviated
  %A    day of the week
  %b    month, abbreviated
  %B    month
  %c    DD/MM/YY HH:MM:SS
  %C    ctime format: Sat 12 Nov 2006 15:42:06
  %d    numeric day of the month, with leading zeros (eg 01..31)
  %e    numeric day of the month, with leading space (eg  1..31)
  %D    DD/MM/YY
  %h    month, abbreviated
  %H    hour, 24 hour clock, leading 0's
  %I    hour, 12 hour clock, leading 0's
  %j    day of the year
  %k    hour
  %l    hour, 12 hour clock
  %m    month number, starting with 01
  %M    minute, leading 0's
  %n    newline char
  %o    age string (eg "7 weeks ago")
  %p    AM or PM
  %P    am or pm
  %r    time format: 08:03:45 PM
  %R    time format: 21:05
  %s    seconds since the Epoch
  %S    seconds, leading 0's
  %t    tab char
  %T    time format: 21:05:57
  %U    week number, Sunday as first day of week
  %w    day of the week, numerically, Sunday == 0
  %W    week number, Monday as first day of week
  %x    date format: 2000-11-19
  %X    time format: 15:03:09
  %y    year (2 digits)
  %Y    year (4 digits)
  %Z    timezone in ascii, eg: IST
  %z    timezone in format -/+0200