NAME
    DateTime::Format::Flexible - DateTime::Format::Flexible - Flexibly parse
    strings and turn them into DateTime objects.

SYNOPSIS
      use DateTime::Format::Flexible;
      my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime( 'January 8, 1999' );
      # $dt = a DateTime object set at 1999-01-08T00:00:00

DESCRIPTION
    If you have ever had to use a program that made you type in the date a
    certain way and thought "Why can't the computer just figure out what
    date I wanted?", this module is for you.

    DateTime::Format::Flexible attempts to take any string you give it and
    parse it into a DateTime object.

    The test file tests 2500+ variations of date/time strings. If you can
    think of any that I do not cover, please let me know.

USAGE
    This module uses DateTime::Format::Builder under the covers.

  build, parse_datetime
    build and parse_datetime do the same thing. Give it a string and it
    attempts to parse it and return a DateTime object.

    If it can't it will throw an exception.

     my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->build( $date );

     my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime( $date );

     my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime(
         $date,
         strip    => [qr{\.\z}],
         tz_map   => {EDT => 'America/New_York'},
         european => 1
     );

    *   "strip"

        Remove a substring from the string you are trying to parse. You can
        pass multiple regexes in an arrayref.

        example:

         my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime(
             '2011-04-26 00:00:00 (registry time)' ,
             strip => [qr{\(registry time\)\z}] ,
         );
         # $dt is now 2011-04-26T00:00:00

        This is helpful if you have a load of dates you want to normalize
        and you know of some weird formatting beforehand.

    *   "tz_map"

        map a given timezone to another recognized timezone Values are given
        as a hashref.

        example:

         my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime(
             '25-Jun-2009 EDT' ,
             tz_map => {EDT => 'America/New_York'}
         );
         # $dt is now 2009-06-25T00:00:00 with a timezone of America/New_York

        This is helpful if you have a load of dates that have timezones that
        are not recognized by DateTime::Timezone.

    *   "european"

        If european is set to a true value, an attempt will be made to parse
        as a DD-MM-YYYY date instead of the default MM-DD-YYYY. There is a
        chance that this will not do the right thing due to ambiguity.

        example:

         my $dt = DateTime::Format::Flexible->parse_datetime(
             '16/06/2010' , european => 1 ,
         );
         # $dt is now 2010-06-16T00:00:00

  Example formats
    A small list of supported formats:

    YYYYMMDDTHHMMSS
    YYYYMMDDTHHMM
    YYYYMMDDTHH
    YYYYMMDD
    YYYYMM
    MM-DD-YYYY
    MM-D-YYYY
    MM-DD-YY
    M-DD-YY
    YYYY/DD/MM
    YYYY/M/DD
    YYYY/MM/D
    M-D
    MM-D
    M-D-Y
    Month D, YYYY
    Mon D, YYYY
    Mon D, YYYY HH:MM:SS
    ...

    there are 9000+ variations that are detected correctly in the test files
    (see t/data/* for most of them).

NOTES
    The DateTime website http://datetime.perl.org/?Modules as of march 2008
    lists this module under 'Confusing' and recommends the use of
    DateTime::Format::Natural.

    Unfortunately I do not agree. DateTime::Format::Natural currently fails
    more than 2000 of my parsing tests. DateTime::Format::Flexible supports
    different types of date/time strings than DateTime::Format::Natural. I
    think there is utility in that can be found in both of them.

    The whole goal of DateTime::Format::Flexible is to accept just about any
    crazy date/time string that a user might care to enter.
    DateTime::Format::Natural seems to be a little stricter in what it can
    parse.

BUGS
    You cannot use a 1 or 2 digit year as the first field:

     YY-MM-DD # not supported
     Y-MM-DD  # not supported

    It would get confused with MM-DD-YY

AUTHOR
        Tom Heady
        CPAN ID: thinc
        Punch, Inc.
        cpan@punch.net
        http://www.punch.net/

COPYRIGHT and LICENSE
    Copyright 2007-2009 Tom Heady

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

    The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included
    with this module.

SEE ALSO
    DateTime::Format::Builder, DateTime::Timezone, DateTime::Format::Natural

