Re: Credit Card Billing

[Jazz]

I use Class::Date for date comparisons. It facilitate comparisons with past, present and future dates.

use Class::Date qw/ date localdate now /;



# date that the billing period starts  (get data from db)
my $period_start = date('2001-12-31');


# date to start attempting charges  (get data from db)
my $charge_date = date('2001-12-27');


my $today = date( localdate( now ))->truncate; # truncate makes time m
+idnight



# it's late

if (  $charge_date < $today ){

    print "Charge date passed. Transaction previously failed.  Try aga
+in.\n";

}


# not yet due

elsif ( $charge_date > $today ) {

    print 'Charge to be processed in ',
          +( $charge_date - Class::Date->new( $today ) )->day,
          ' days.';

}


# charge today

else {

    print 'Today is charge date.  If successful, next charge date will
+ be: ',
          date( $charge_date + '1M'); # one month

    # change next charge date in BillSchedule table.

}

An alternative is to use Date::Calc, which was discussed recently here. Depending on how many comparisions you'll be doing, Date::Calc may be the best choice because it's much faster.