NAME

Finance::Currency::Convert - Convert currencies and fetch their exchange rates (with Finance::Quote)

SYNOPSIS

   use Finance::Currency::Convert;
   my $converter = new Finance::Currency::Convert;

   $amount_euro = $converter->convert(100, "DEM", "EUR");
   $amount_euro = $converter->convertToEUR(100, "DEM");
   $amount_dem = $converter->convertFromEUR(100, "DEM");

   $converter->updateRates("EUR", "DEM", "USD");
   $converter->updateRate("DEM", "USD");

   $converter->setRatesFile(".rates");
   $converter->writeRatesFile();

DESCRIPTION

This module converts currencies. It has built in the fixed exchange rates for all Euro currencies (as of November 2000). If you wish to use other / more currencies, you can automatically fetch their exchange rates from the internet and (optionally) store them in a file for later reference.

Use this module if you have large volumes of currency data to convert. Using the exchange rates from memory makes it a lot faster than using Finance::Quote directly and will save you the duty of storing the exchange rates yourself.

CURRENCY SYMBOLS

Finance::Currency::Convert uses the three character ISO currency codes used by Finance::Quote. Here is a list of currency codes.

Currencies with built-in rates (complete):

        EUR             Euro
        ATS             Austrian Schilling
        BEF             Belgiam Franc
        DEM             German Mark
        ESP             Spanish Peseta
        FIM             Finnish Mark
        FRF             French Franc
        GRD             Greek Drachma
        IEP             Irish Punt
        ITL             Italian Lira
        LUF             Luxembourg Franc
        NLG             Dutch Guilder
        PTE             Portuguese Escudo
        CYP             Cyprus Pound
        MTL             Maltese Lira
        SIT             Slovenian Tolars

Other currencies (incomplete):

        AUD             Australian Dollar
        CHF             Swiss Franc
        HKD             Hong Kong Dollar
        JPY             Japanese Yen
        USD             US Dollar

AVAILABLE METHODS

NEW

   my $converter = new Finance::Currency::Convert;

The newly created conversion object will by default only know how to convert Euro currencies. To "teach" it more currencies use updateRate or updateRates.

CONVERT

   $amount_euro = $converter->convert(100, "DEM", "EUR");

This will convert 100 German Marks into the equivalent amount Euro.

CONVERTTOEURO

   $amount_euro = $converter->convertToEUR(100, "DEM");

This will convert 100 German Marks into the equivalent amount Euro. This function is simply shorthand for calling convert directly with "EUR" als the second (target) currency.

CONVERTFROMEURO

   $amount_dem = $converter->convertFromEUR(100, "DEM");

This will convert 100 Euro into the equivalent amount German Marks. This function is simply shorthand for calling convert directly with "EUR" als the first (source) currency.

UPDATERATES

   $converter->updateRates("USD");
   $converter->updateRates("EUR", "DEM", "USD");

This will fetch the exchange rates for one or more currencies using Finance::Quote and update the exchange rates in memory. This method will fetch _all_ combinations of exchange rates between the named currencies and the ones already in memory. This may result in a large number of requests to Finance::Quote. To avoid network overhead you can store the retrieved rates with setRatesFile() / writeRatesFile() once you have retrieved them and load them again with setRatesFile().

To update a single exchange rate use updateRate.

UPDATERATE

   $converter->updateRate("DEM, "USD");

This will fetch a single exchange rate using Finance::Quote and update the exchange rates in memory.

SETUSERAGENT

        $converter->setUserAgent("MyCurrencyAgent 1.0");

Set the user agent string to be used by Finance::Quote.

SETRATE

        $converter->setRate("EUR", "USD", 999);

Set one exchange rate. Used internally by updateRates, but may be of use if you have to add a rate manually.

SETRATESFILE

   $converter->setRatesFile(".rates");

Name the file where exchange rates are stored. If it already exists it will be read into memory.

READRATESFILE

   $converter->readRatesFile();

Usually called internally by setRatesFile, but may also be called directly to revert to the rates stored in the file. Calling readRatesFile() will erase all existing exchange rates in memory.

WRITERATESFILE

   $converter->writeRatesFile();

Call this function to save table with exchange rates from memory to the file named by setRatesFile() eg. after fetching new rates with updateRates.

AUTHOR

  Jan Willamowius <jan@willamowius.de>, http://www.willamowius.de/perl.html

SEE ALSO

Finance::Quote

This module is only needed for fetching exchange rates. There is no need to install it when only Euro currencies are used.

cpanm Finance::Currency::Convert

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Finance::Currency::Convert