Time::Object - Object Oriented time objects
use Time::Object;
my $t = localtime;
print "Time is $t\n";
print "Year is ", $t->year, "\n";
This module replaces the standard localtime and gmtime functions with implementations that return objects. It does so in a backwards compatible manner, so that using localtime/gmtime in the way documented in perlfunc will still return what you expect.
The module actually implements most of an interface described by Larry Wall on the perl5-porters mailing list here: http://www.xray.mpe.mpg.de/mailing-lists/perl5-porters/2000-01/msg00241.html
After importing this module, when you use localtime or gmtime in a scalar
context, rather than getting an ordinary scalar string representing the
date and time, you get a Time::Object object, whose stringification happens
to produce the same effect as the localtime and gmtime functions. There is
also a new() constructor provided, which is the same as localtime(), except
when passed a Time::Object object, in which case it's a copy constructor. The
following methods are available on the object:
$t->sec # also available as $t->second
$t->min # also available as $t->minute
$t->hour
$t->mday # also available as $t->day_of_month
$t->mon # based at 1
$t->_mon # based at 0
$t->monname # February
$t->month # same as $t->monname
$t->year # based at 0 (year 0 AD is, of course 1 BC).
$t->_year # year minus 1900
$t->yr # 2 digit year
$t->wday # based at 1 = Sunday
$t->_wday # based at 0 = Sunday
$t->day_of_week # based at 0 = Sunday
$t->wdayname # Tuesday
$t->day # same as wdayname
$t->yday # also available as $t->day_of_year
$t->isdst # also available as $t->daylight_savings
$t->hms # 01:23:45
$t->ymd # 2000/02/29
$t->mdy # 02/29/2000
$t->dmy # 29/02/2000
$t->date # Tue Feb 29 01:23:45 2000
"$t" # same as $t->date
$t->epoch # seconds since the epoch
$t->tzoffset # timezone offset in a Time::Seconds object
$t->strftime(FORMAT) # same as POSIX::strftime (without POSIX.pm)
It's possible to use simple addition and subtraction of objects:
use Time::Seconds;
my $seconds = $t1 - $t2;
$t1 += ONE_DAY; # add 1 day (constant from Time::Seconds)
The following are valid ($t1 and $t2 are Time::Object objects):
$t1 - $t2; # returns Time::Seconds object
$t1 - 42; # returns Time::Object object
$t1 + 533; # returns Time::Object object
However adding a Time::Object object to another Time::Object object will cause a runtime error.
Note that the first of the above returns a Time::Seconds object, so while examining the object will print the number of seconds (because of the overloading), you can also get the number of minutes, hours, days, weeks and years in that delta, using the Time::Seconds API.
Date comparisons are also possible, using the full suite of ``<'', ``>'', ``<='', ``>='', ``<=>'', ``=='' and ``!=''.
Finally, it's possible to override localtime and gmtime everywhere, by including the 'overrideGlobally' tag in the import list:
use Time::Object 'overrideGlobally';
I'm not too keen on this name yet - suggestions welcome...
Matt Sergeant, matt@sergeant.org
This module is free software, you may distribute it under the same terms as Perl.
The test harness leaves much to be desired. Patches welcome.