Hey runrig, thanks for the reply!

Cool, good info there, thanks!

I don't know if its the "best" way to go, but I was using the dates I created using the "Time::Piece" Module, then
I use the "Date::Manip" module to calculate a future date/time (*or past date if you needed to). The cool thing about
the Date::manip Module is that you can use human relate-able strings to calculate the date.

For example, before I added the "Date::Manip" Module, and currently still, I have a Command Line Option that the user inputs when
executing. Where the value of the argument is in the form of "a number followed by a time-unit". So for instance the
user could enter any of the following:
        --end-in="1hour"
        --end-in="2 hours"
        --end-in="3 hrs"
        --end-in="20 min"
        --end-in="30minutes"
        --end-in="1day"
        etc...............

Then after the user executes and after some error checking of the users input, I take the option the user entered, like "30 mins"
and then use that in the DateCalc Function, which is part of the Date::Manip Module. For the error checking I split the users
input into a number and a "time_unit", so "30mins" would get split into "30" and "mins", then I check each one.

So I would then take the current_date calculated by "Time::Piece qw(localtime)" and use that as the first argument to the "DateCalc"
Function, like so:

   ## Create the 'date manipulation' string for the DateCalc Function:
   #        *The user's input is called $end_timeSpan...
   my $date_manip = "in $end_timeSpan"

   # For this example lets say:
   #       $current_time == "07/17/2013 10:30:00"

   ### Calculate the future date from the $current_date:
   #      *Output from function is in the form:
   #           "2013071811:00:00" --> YYYYMMDDHH:MM:SS
   my $future_date = DateCalc($current_date,$date_manip)

   # After running the above & capturing each piece from DateCalc, the
   # $future_date == "07/17/2013 11:00:00", which would be 30 mins 
   # from the $current_date.
[download]

So that's basically what I'm doing with the Date stuff. There is some other stuff I do with the Date and Time but that above is
the most important part.

Thanks again for all the suggestions and info.


Thanks Again,
Matt

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.