Data::Faker::DateTime(3) Data::Faker plugin

SYNOPSIS AND USAGE

See Data::Faker

DATA PROVIDERS

unixtime
Return a unix time (seconds since the epoch) for a random time between the epoch and now.
date
Return a random date as a string, using a random date format (see date_format).
time
Return a random time as a string, using a random time format (see time_format).
rfc822
Return an RFC 822 formatted random date. This method may not work on systems using a non-GNU strftime implementation (kindly let me know if that is the case.)
ampm
Returns am or pm randomly (in the current locale) using one of the formats specified in ampm_format.
time_format
Return a random time format.
date_format
Return a random date format.
ampm_format
Return a random am/pm format.
datetime_format
Return a random date and time format.
month
Return a random month name, unabbreviated, in the current locale.
month_abbr
Return a random month name, abbreviated, in the current locale.
weekday
Return a random weekday name, unabbreviated, in the current locale.
weekday_abbr
Return a random weekday name, abbreviated, in the current locale.
sqldate
Return a random date in the ISO8601 format commonly used by SQL servers (YYYY-MM-DD).
datetime_locale
Return a datetime string in the preferred date representation for the current locale, for a random date.
date_locale
Return a date string in the preferred date representation for the current locale, for a random date.
time_locale
Return a time string in the preferred date representation for the current locale, for a random date.
century
Return a random century number.
dayofmonth
Return a random day of the month.

UTILITY METHODS

Data::Faker::DateTime::timestr($format);
Given a strftime format specifier, this method passes it through to POSIX::strftime along with a random date to display in that format.

Perl passes this through to the strftime function of your system library, so it is possible that some of the formatting tokens used here will not work on your system.

NOTES AND CAVEATS

Be careful building timestamps from pieces
Be very careful about building date/time representations in formats that are not already listed here. For example if you wanted to get a date that consists of just the month and day, you should NOT do this: 

  my $faker = Data::Faker->new();
  print join(' ',$faker->month,$faker->dayofmonth)."\n";

This is bad because you might end up with 'February 31' for example. Instead you should use the timestr utility function to provide you a formatted time for a valid date, or better still, write a plugin function that does it: 

  my $faker = Data::Faker->new();
  print $faker->my_short_date()."\n";
  package Data::Faker::MyExtras;
  use base qw(Data::Faker);
  use Data::Faker::DateTime;
  __PACKAGE__->register_plugin(
    my_short_date => sub { Data::Faker::DateTime::timestr('%M %e') },
  );
POSIX::strftime
See the documentation above regarding the timestr utility method for some caveats related to strftime and your system library.

AUTHOR

Jason Kohles, <[email protected]>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2004-2005 by Jason Kohles

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

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