NAME
    Date::Manip - Date manipulation routines

DESCRIPTION
    Date::Manip is a series of modules designed to make any common date/time
    operation easy to do. Operations such as comparing two times,
    determining a date a given amount of time from another, or parsing
    international times are all easily done. It deals with time as it is
    used in the Gregorian calendar (the one currently in use) with full
    support for time changes due to daylight saving time.

    From the very beginning, the main focus of Date::Manip has been to be
    able to do ANY desired date/time operation easily. Many other modules
    exist which may do a subset of these operations quicker or more
    efficiently, but no other module can do all of the operations available
    in Date::Manip.

    Date::Manip has functionality to work with several fundamental types of
    data.

    dates
        The word date is used extensively here and is somewhat misleading.
        In Date::Manip, a date consists of three pieces of information: a
        calendar date (year, month, day), a time of day (hour, minute,
        second), and time zone information. Calendar dates and times are
        fully handled. Time zones are handled as well, but depending on how
        you use Date::Manip, there may be some limitations as discussed
        below.

    delta
        A delta is an amount of time (i.e. the amount of time between two
        different dates). Think of it as the duration of an event or the
        amount of time between two dates.

        A delta refers only to an amount of time. It includes no information
        about a starting or ending date/time. Most people will think of a
        delta as an amount of time, but the term 'time' is already used so
        much in this module that I didn't want to use it here in order to
        avoid confusion.

    recurrence
        A recurring event is something which occurs on a regular recurring
        basis.

    holidays and events
        Holidays and events are basically named dates or recurrences.

    Among other things, Date::Manip allow you to:

    *   Enter a date in practically any format you choose.

    *   Compare two dates, entered in widely different formats to determine
        which is earlier.

    *   Extract any information you want from a date using a format string
        similar to the Unix date command.

    *   Determine the amount of time between two dates, or add an amount of
        time (a delta) to a date to get a second date.

    *   Work with dates using international formats (foreign month names,
        12/10/95 referring to October rather than December, etc.).

    *   Convert dates from one timezone to another.

    *   To find a list of dates where a recurring event happens.

    Each of these tasks is trivial (one or two lines at most) with this
    package.

HOW TO USE DATE::MANIP
    There are three different ways to use Date::Manip . There are three
    interfaces (version 5 functional interface, version 6 functional, and
    version 6 object-oriented). A complete description of each is included
    in the Date::Manip::Interfaces document. The recommended (and the only
    one with access to the full functionality of the module) is using the
    Object-Oriented interface.

SEE ALSO
    Because Date::Manip performs so many operations, the documentation is
    extensive. It includes the following documents:

  Information about the different interfaces
    Read this for a detailed description of each of the interfaces,
    including information on how to choose and use the interface best suited
    to your situation.

    Date::Manip::Interfaces
        A complete description of the functional interfaces available. NOTE:
        it is recommended that you use the OO interface wherever possible as
        the functional interfaces have some limitations.

  A description of the functional interfaces:
    Date::Manip::DM5
        The version 5 functional interface

    Date::Manip::DM6
        The version 6 functional interface

  Objects and configuration
    An introduction to the Date::Manip classes used by the object-oriented
    interface and how to configure them:

    Date::Manip::Objects
        An overview of the various Date::Manip modules, and how to use them.

    Date::Manip::Config
        Information for configuring Date::Manip

  Date::Manip object-oriented modules
    These are the modules for using the object-oriented interface.

    Date::Manip::Obj
        This is the base class. All other classes listed here inherit the
        methods defined in this class.

    Date::Manip::Base
        A module for doing low-level date operations.

    Date::Manip::TZ
        A module for working with time zones.

    Date::Manip::Date
        The module for working with dates.

    Date::Manip::Delta
        The module for working with deltas (amount of time).

    Date::Manip::Recur
        The module for working with recurrences (recurring dates).

  Timezone information
    Date::Manip::DM5abbrevs
        Time zone abbreviations used in the version 5 interface.

    Date::Manip::Zones
        Time zone data included in Date::Manip used in the version 6
        interfaces.

  Miscellaneous information:
    Date::Manip::Calc
        Detailed information on how date calculations are done.

    Date::Manip::Holidays
        Information on defining and using holidays and events.

    Date::Manip::ConfigFile
        A sample config file.

    Date::Manip::Lang
        Information about the languages supported by Date::Manip and how to
        add a new language.

    Date::Manip::Lang::english
    Date::Manip::Lang::catalan
    Date::Manip::Lang::danish
    Date::Manip::Lang::dutch
    Date::Manip::Lang::finnish
    Date::Manip::Lang::french
    Date::Manip::Lang::german
    Date::Manip::Lang::italian
    Date::Manip::Lang::norwegian
    Date::Manip::Lang::polish
    Date::Manip::Lang::portugue
    Date::Manip::Lang::romanian
    Date::Manip::Lang::russian
    Date::Manip::Lang::spanish
    Date::Manip::Lang::swedish
    Date::Manip::Lang::turkish
        A description of the parseable words in each language currently
        supported by Date::Manip.

  Information about the module and administrative things:
    Date::Manip::Migration5to6
        Information on changes necessary to scripts when upgrading from 5.xx
        to 6.xx.

    Date::Manip::Changes5
        Change log for Date::Manip 5.xx

    Date::Manip::Changes5to6
        Differences between version 5.xx and 6.00 (including information on
        upgrading); this contains more details than the Migration5to6
        document.

    Date::Manip::Changes6
        Change log for Date::Manip 6.xx

    Date::Manip::Misc
        Miscellaneous information about Date::Manip (who should use it;
        acknowledgments).

        Since many other date/time modules exist, some of which may do the
        specific operation(s) you need faster, be sure to read "SHOULD I USE
        DATE::MANIP" in Date::Manip::Misc before deciding which of the Date
        and Time modules from CPAN is for you. However, if you want one
        module to do it all, Date::Manip is the one to use.

    Date::Manip::History
        Musings on the history of Date::Manip written around it's 20th
        birthday.

    Date::Manip::Problems
        Common problems and instructions for reporting bugs.

    Date::Manip::Examples
        Examples of how to use Date::Manip.

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

AUTHOR
    Sullivan Beck (sbeck@cpan.org)