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NAME
    Acme::CPANModules::FormattingDate - List of various methods to format
    dates

VERSION
    This document describes version 0.002 of
    Acme::CPANModules::FormattingDate (from Perl distribution
    Acme-CPANModules-FormattingDate), released on 2023-10-29.

DESCRIPTION
    Overview

    Date formatting modules can be categorized by their expected input
    format and the formatting styles.

    Input format: Some modules accept date in the form of Unix epoch (an
    integer), or a list of integer produced by running the epoch through the
    builtin gmtime() or localtime() function. Some others might expect the
    date as DateTime object. For formatting style: there's strftime in the
    POSIX core module, and then there's the others.

    This list is organized using the latter criteria (formatting style).

    strftime (and variants)

    The POSIX module provides the strftime() routine which lets you format
    using a template string containing sprintf-style conversions like %Y
    (for 4-digit year), %m (2-digit month number from 1-12), and so on.
    There's also Date::strftimeq which provides an extension to this.

    You can actually add some modifiers for the conversions to set
    width/zero-padding/alignment, like you can do with sprintf (e.g. %03d
    supposing you want 3-digit day of month numbers). But this feature is
    platform-dependent.

    yyyy-mm-dd template

    This "yyyy-mm-dd" (for lack of a better term) format is much more
    commonly used in the general computing world, from spreadsheets to
    desktop environment clocks. And this format is probably older than
    strftime. The template is more intuitive to use for people as it gives a
    clear picture of how wide each component (and the whole string) will be.

    There are some modules you can use to format dates using this style.
    First of all there's Date::Formatter. I find its API a little bit
    annoying, from the verbose date component key names and inconsistent
    usage of plurals, to having to use a separate method to "create the
    formatter" first.

    PHP

    PHP decided to invent its own date template format. Its date() function
    accepts template string in which you specify single letter conversions
    like "Y' (for 4-digit year),"y"(2-digit year), and so on. Some of the
    letters mean the same like their counterpart in strftime, but some are
    different (examples:"i", "a","M`, and so on). The use of single letter
    means it's more concise, but the format becomes unsuitable if you want
    to put other stuffs (like some string alphabetical literals) in addition
    to date components.

    In Perl, you can use the PHP::DateTime to format dates using PHP date()
    format.

ACME::CPANMODULES ENTRIES
    Date::strftimeq
        Author: PERLANCAR <https://metacpan.org/author/PERLANCAR>

    Date::Formatter
        Author: BIANCHINI <https://metacpan.org/author/BIANCHINI>

    PHP::DateTime
        Author: BLUEFEET <https://metacpan.org/author/BLUEFEET>

FAQ
  What is an Acme::CPANModules::* module?
    An Acme::CPANModules::* module, like this module, contains just a list
    of module names that share a common characteristics. It is a way to
    categorize modules and document CPAN. See Acme::CPANModules for more
    details.

  What are ways to use this Acme::CPANModules module?
    Aside from reading this Acme::CPANModules module's POD documentation,
    you can install all the listed modules (entries) using cpanm-cpanmodules
    script (from App::cpanm::cpanmodules distribution):

     % cpanm-cpanmodules -n FormattingDate

    Alternatively you can use the cpanmodules CLI (from App::cpanmodules
    distribution):

        % cpanmodules ls-entries FormattingDate | cpanm -n