NAME

Weather::Com::DateTime - date and time class

SYNOPSIS

  #!/usr/bin/perl -w
  use Weather::Com::DateTime;
  
  my $gmt_offset = 1; # e.g. for Germany in winter
  my $datetime = Weather::Com::DateTime->new($gmt_offset);
  $datetime->set_lsup('02/25/05 11:21 PM Local Time');
  
  print "This is the date '02/25/05 11:21 PM' in Germany:\n";
  print "Epoc:                    ", $datetime->epoc(), "\n";
  print "GMT (UTC):               ". gmtime($datetime->epoc()). "\n";
  print "My local time:           ". localtime($datetime->epoc()). "\n";
  print "And finally German time: ", $datetime->time(), " o'clock at ", 
        $datetime->date(), "\n\n";

DESCRIPTION

Weather::Com::DateTime objects are used to encapsulate a date or time provided by the OO interface (e.g. localtime, sunrise, sunset, etc.).

This is done because there are many ways to use a date or time and to present it in your programs using Weather::Com. This class provides some predefined formats for date and time but also enables you to easily define your own ones.

These objects always represent the local time of a Weather::Com::Location object. That is, if you have a location object for New York City and your server running the weather script is located in Los Angeles, for example, this line

  print "Sunrise at: ", $location->sunrise()->time(), "\n";

will print the time of sunrise (in 24h format) in EST and not corresponding to the timezone of Los Angeles! If you'd like to now what this is in GMT you could call

  print "Sunrise at: ". gmtime($location->sunrise()->epoc()). "\n";

or if you want to know when the sun rises at the location in your servers local time than just call

  print "Sunrise at: ". localtime($location->sunrise()->epoc()). "\n";

There are two ways to get your own date or time format:

1. You use the formatted() method and provide a format string to it.

2. If you'd like to define your own date() or time() method, simply change the corresponding methods.

   What you can change in which way without destroying the whole class, is described in section INTERFACE.

CONSTRUCTOR

You usually would not construct an object of this class yourself. This is implicitely done when you call one of the OO interfaces date or time methods.

The constructor can take a GMT offset in positive or negative hours.

If one calls the constructor without any GMT offset, we assume you want a GMT object.

METHODS

epoc(epoc seconds)

With this method you can set the date and time using epocs (GMT) directly.

It returns the currently set epoc seconds (GMT).

formatted(format)

This method returns a date or time formatted in the way you ask for and corresponding to the local time of the parent object.

The format you provide to this method has to be a valid Time::Format format. For details please refer to Time::Format.

set_date(date)

With this method one can set the date of the object using an input format like Feb 13 which is the 13th of february of the current year.

Using this method, the time is set to 00:00. The year is the current one.

set_time(time)

With this method one can set the time of the object using an input format like 8:30 AM.

The date is set to the current date of the host the script is running on.

set_lsup(lsup)

With this method one can set the date of the object using the weather.com's special last update format that is like 2/12/05 4:50 PM Local Time.

date()

Returns the date in the format 1. February 2005.

time()

Returns the time in the format 22:15.

time_ampm()

Returns the time in the format 10:15 PM.

weekday()

Returns the day of week with like Wednesday.

day()

Returns the day in month.

month()

Returns the name of the month.

mon()

Returns the number of the month

year()

Returns the year (4 digits).

AUTHOR

Thomas Schnuecker, <thomas@schnuecker.de>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2004-2009 by Thomas Schnuecker

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

The data provided by weather.com and made accessible by this OO interface can be used for free under special terms. Please have a look at the application programming guide of weather.com (http://www.weather.com/services/xmloap.html)!

cpanm Weather::Com

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Weather::Com