DateTime::Format::Natural parses currently input strings successfully
only if the entire string is a valid expression. It has been proposed
that DateTime::Format::Natural also should be able to extract expressions
from a string which has parts not belonging to an expression, like:
"see you next tuesday for coffee" -> "next tuesday"
The idea is mostly implemented and hence I'm looking for a suitable name
of the added public extract method. This method takes a string and given
that there are expressions returns in scalar context the first expression,
in list context all expressions; if no expressions were found, nothing
is returned. The extracted expressions can then be passed to the parse
methods.
I'm leaning towards naming it extract_datetime(), but nevertheless, I'm
thankful for any comments. Attached is the synopsis from the working
tree changes.
SYNOPSIS
use DateTime::Format::Natural;
$parser = DateTime::Format::Natural->new;
+ $date_string = $parser->extract_datetime($extract_string);
+ @date_strings = $parser->extract_datetime($extract_string);
+
$dt = $parser->parse_datetime($date_string);
@dt = $parser->parse_datetime_duration($date_string);
if ($parser->success) {
# operate on $dt/@dt, for example:
printf("%02d.%02d.%4d %02d:%02d:%02d\n", $dt->day,
$dt->month,
$dt->year,
$dt->hour,
$dt->min,
$dt->sec);
} else {
warn $parser->error;
}
@traces = $parser->trace;
