libdate-calc-perl 6.3-1 / usr / share / perl5 / Date / Calendar.pod

=head1 NAME

Date::Calendar - Calendar objects for different holiday schemes

=head1 MOTTO

There is more than one way to do it - this is just one of them!

=head1 PREFACE

Basically, Date::Calendar is just a caching proxy class for
Date::Calendar::Year objects, which are embedded in each
Date::Calendar object.

However, and in contrast to Date::Calendar::Year methods, Date::Calendar
methods permit calculations spanning an arbitrary number of years, without
loss of efficiency.

So you should usually use Date::Calendar and not Date::Calendar::Year,
since that way you don't have to worry about calculations crossing year
boundaries.

Note however that Date::Calendar and Date::Calendar::Year can only deal
with years lying within the range [1583..2299].

=head1 SYNOPSIS

  use Date::Calendar::Profiles qw( $Profiles );
  use Date::Calendar;

  $calendar_US_AZ  = Date::Calendar->new( $Profiles->{'US-AZ'} [,LANG[,WEEKEND]] );
  $calendar_DE_SN  = Date::Calendar->new( $Profiles->{'DE-SN'} [,LANG[,WEEKEND]] );

  $year_2000_US_AZ = $calendar_US_AZ->year( 2000 );
  $year_2001_DE_SN = $calendar_DE_SN->year( 2001 );

  @years = $calendar->cache_keys(); # returns list of year numbers
  @years = $calendar->cache_vals(); # returns list of year objects

  $calendar->cache_clr();
  $calendar->cache_add(YEAR|DATE,...);
  $calendar->cache_del(YEAR|DATE,...);

  $index        = $calendar->date2index(YEAR,MONTH,DAY|DATE);

  @names        = $calendar->labels(YEAR,MONTH,DAY|DATE);
  @holidays     = $calendar->labels();
  $holidays     = $calendar->labels();

  @dates        = $calendar->search(PATTERN);
  $dates        = $calendar->search(PATTERN);

  $hashref      = $calendar->tags(YEAR,MONTH,DAY|DATE);

  $days         = $calendar->delta_workdays(YEAR1,MONTH1,DAY1|DATE1
                                           ,YEAR2,MONTH2,DAY2|DATE2
                                           ,FLAG1,FLAG2);

  ($date,$rest) = $calendar->add_delta_workdays(YEAR,MONTH,DAY|DATE
                                               ,DELTA);
  $date         = $calendar->add_delta_workdays(YEAR,MONTH,DAY|DATE
                                               ,DELTA);

  $flag         = $calendar->is_full(YEAR,MONTH,DAY|DATE);
  $flag         = $calendar->is_half(YEAR,MONTH,DAY|DATE);
  $flag         = $calendar->is_work(YEAR,MONTH,DAY|DATE);

=head1 INTERFACE

Note that whenever a year number, a date, a time or a combined
date and time are expected as input parameters by one of the
methods of this class, you can always pass a Date::Calc[::Object]
date object or an array reference (of an array of appropriate
length) instead!

See L<Date::Calc::Object(3)> for more details.

So instead of calling a given method like this:

  $object->method1( $year,$month,$day );
  $object->method2( $year1,$month1,$day1, $year2,$month2,$day2 );
  $object->method3( $year1, $year2, $year3 );

You can also call it like so:

  $object->method1( $date );
  $object->method1( [1964,1,3] );

  $object->method2( $year1,$month1,$day1, $date2 );
  $object->method2( $date1, $year2,$month2,$day2 );
  $object->method2( $date1, $date2 );
  $object->method2( $year1,$month1,$day1, [2001,3,17] );
  $object->method2( [1964,1,3], $year2,$month2,$day2 );
  $object->method2( [1964,1,3], [2001,3,17] );
  $object->method2( $date1, [2001,3,17] );
  $object->method2( [1964,1,3], $date2 );

  $object->method3( $year1, $date2, [2001,3,17] );

And similarly if a time or a combined date and time are expected.

If you substitute an expected year number by an anonymous array
(this is the recommended way of writing date constants, for
increased readability of your programs), it must contain three
values, nevertheless (otherwise the use of an anonymous array
would be pointless).

Don't confuse year numbers and their substitutes (a date object
or an array reference) with Date::Calendar::Year objects, which
are a totally different thing!

But incidentally C<:-)>, you may also pass a Date::Calendar::Year
object whenever a year number is expected. However, and perhaps
against your expectations at times, especially in conjunction
with the method "cache_add()", only the year number from that
object will be used, not the year object itself (the year
object in question might be using the wrong profile!).

Moreover, whenever a method of this class returns a date, it
does so by returning a Date::Calc[::Object] date object.

=head1 DESCRIPTION

=over 2

=item *

C<$calendar = Date::Calendar-E<gt>new(PROFILE[,LANG[,WEEKEND]]);>

The first argument must be the reference of a hash,
which contains a holiday scheme or "profile" to be used
in all calculations involving the new calendar object.

The second argument is optional, and must consist of
the valid name or number of a language as provided by
the Date::Calc(3) module if given.

After the second argument, a list of day numbers which
will constitute the "weekend" can optionally be specified,
where 1=Monday, 2=Tuesday, 3=Wednesday, 4=Thursday,
5=Friday, 6=Saturday and 7=Sunday.

If no values are given, 6 and 7 (Saturday and Sunday)
are automatically taken as default.

If values outside of the range C<1..7> are given,
they will be ignored.

This can be used to switch off this feature and to
have no regularly recurring holidays at all when
for instance a zero is given.

See L<Date::Calendar::Profiles(3)> and L<Date::Calendar::Year(3)>
for more details about these arguments and about how
to roll your own calendar profiles.

The method creates a new calendar object for a given profile,
i.e., a given location and its scheme of holidays (or a scheme
of your own).

This calendar object is a caching proxy object; it stores the
reference of the given profile and contains a hash (the cache)
of Date::Calendar::Year objects.

=item *

C<$year = $calendar-E<gt>year(YEAR|DATE);>

This method returns a Date::Calendar::Year object for the given
year and the profile that was associated with the given calendar
object.

If the cache in the given calendar object already contains an
object for the requested year, the corresponding object reference
is simply returned.

If not, a new Date::Calendar::Year object is created using the
profile that has been associated with the given calendar object.
The new Date::Calendar::Year object is then stored in the calendar
object's cache and its object reference is returned.

A fatal "given year out of range" error will occur if the given
year number lies outside the valid range of [1583..2299].

=item *

C<@years = $calendar-E<gt>cache_keys();>

This method returns the list of B<YEAR NUMBERS> of the
Date::Calendar::Year objects contained in the given
calendar object's cache.

=item *

C<@years = $calendar-E<gt>cache_vals();>

This method returns the list of B<OBJECT REFERENCES> of
the Date::Calendar::Year objects contained in the given
calendar object's cache.

=item *

C<$calendar-E<gt>cache_clr();>

This method clears the entire cache of the given calendar
object (by destroying the cache hash and creating a new one).

=item *

C<$calendar-E<gt>cache_add(YEAR|DATE,...);>

Roughly, this method is a shortcut for

  for $year (@list)
  {
      $calendar->year($year);
  }

=item *

C<$calendar-E<gt>cache_del(YEAR|DATE,...);>

This method removes the Date::Calendar::Year objects whose
year numbers are given from the cache of the given calendar
object.

Year numbers for which the calendar object's cache doesn't
contain an entry are simply ignored.

=item *

C<$index = $calendar-E<gt>date2index(YEAR,MONTH,DAY|DATE);>

This method converts a given date into the number of the day in
that year (this is sometimes also referred to as the "julian"
date), i.e., a number between 0 (for January 1st) and the number
of days in the given year minus one, i.e., 364 or 365 (for
December 31st).

You may need this in order to access the bit vectors returned
by the Date::Calendar::Year methods "vec_full()", "vec_half()"
and "vec_work()".

If the Date::Calendar::Year object for the given YEAR is not in
the C<$calendar>'s cache yet, it will be created and added.

An exception ("invalid date") is thrown if the given arguments
do not constitute a valid date, or ("given year out of range
[1583..2299]") if the given year lies outside of the permitted
range.

=item *

C<@names = $calendar-E<gt>labels(YEAR,MONTH,DAY|DATE);>

C<@holidays = $calendar-E<gt>labels();>

C<$holidays = $calendar-E<gt>labels();>

If any arguments are given, they are supposed to represent a
date. In that case, a list of all labels (= names of holidays)
associated with that date are returned. The first item returned
is always the name of the day of week for that date. The
corresponding year object for the given date's year is
added to the calendar's cache first if necessary.

If no arguments are given, the list of all available labels in
all years that have previously been accessed in the given calendar
(i.e., the years which are already in the given calendar's cache)
is constructed. Note that this means that the returned list will
be empty if there are no year objects in the given calendar's
cache yet (!). The returned list does B<NOT> include any names
of the days of week (which would be pointless in this case).

Multiple labels are reported only once.

Usually all years have the same set of labels, so it may seem
superfluous to scan all the years in the cache instead of just
one. But there may be exceptions, because it is possible to
define calendar profiles which do not contain all possible
holidays in every year. See L<Date::Calendar::Profiles(3)>
and L<Date::Calendar::Year(3)> for more details.

In list context, the resulting list itself is returned. In scalar
context, the number of items in the resulting list is returned.

=item *

C<@dates = $calendar-E<gt>search(PATTERN);>

C<$dates = $calendar-E<gt>search(PATTERN);>

This method searches through all the labels in all years that
have previously been accessed in the given calendar (i.e., the
years which are already in the given calendar's cache) and
returns a list of date objects with all dates whose labels
match the given pattern.

(Use the methods "cache_clr()", "cache_add()" and "cache_del()"
in order to put the year numbers you want into the calendar
object's cache, or to make sure it only contains the year
numbers you want to search.)

Note that this is a simple, case-insensitive substring search,
B<NOT> a full-fledged regular expression search!

The result is guaranteed to be sorted chronologically.

In scalar context, only the number of items in the resulting list
is returned, instead of the resulting list itself (as in list context).

=item *

C<$hashref = $calendar-E<gt>tags(YEAR,MONTH,DAY|DATE);>

This method returns a hash reference for the given calendar and
date. The hash it refers to is a copy of the calendar profile's
internal hash which contains the names for the given date as keys
and 0, 1, 2, or 3 as their corresponding values meaning the following:

    0    =>    commemorative day
    1    =>    "half" holiday
    2    =>    "full" holiday
    3    =>    both a "half" and a "full" holiday

The value "3" should only occur if a date has been redefined by the
underlying profile using the same key (i.e., the same name) but with
a different type of holiday.

=item *

C<$days = $calendar-E<gt>delta_workdays(YEAR1,MONTH1,DAY1, YEAR2,MONTH2,DAY2, FLAG1,FLAG2);>

C<$days = $calendar-E<gt>delta_workdays(DATE1,DATE2,FLAG1,FLAG2);>

This method calculates the number of work days (i.e., the number
of days, but excluding all holidays) between two dates.

In other words, this method is equivalent to the "Delta_Days()"
function of the Date::Calc module, except that it disregards
holidays in its counting.

The two flags indicate whether the start and end dates should be
included in the counting (that is, of course, only in case they
aren't holidays), or not.

It is common, for example, that you want to know how many work
days are left between the current date and a given deadline.

Typically, you will want to count the current date but not the
deadline's date. So you would specify "true" ("1") for FLAG1
and "false" ("0") for FLAG2 in order to achieve that.

In other words, a value of "true" means "including this date",
a value of "false" means "excluding this date".

As with the "Delta_Days()" function from the Date::Calc module,
the dates have to be given in chronological order to yield a
positive result. If the dates are reversed, the result will
be negative.

The parameter FLAG1 is associated with the first given date,
the parameter FLAG2 with the second given date (regardless
of whether the dates are in chronological order or not).

An exception ("invalid date") is raised if either of the two
date arguments does not constitute a valid date.

=item *

C<($date,$rest) = $calendar-E<gt>add_delta_workdays(YEAR,MONTH,DAY, DELTA);>

C<($date,$rest) = $calendar-E<gt>add_delta_workdays(DATE,DELTA);>

C<$date = $calendar-E<gt>add_delta_workdays(YEAR,MONTH,DAY, DELTA);>

C<$date = $calendar-E<gt>add_delta_workdays(DATE,DELTA);>

This method is the equivalent of the "Add_Delta_Days()" function
from the Date::Calc module, except that it adds work days and
skips holidays.

In other words, you can add or subtract a number of work days
"DELTA" to/from a given date and get a new date as the result
(as a Date::Calc object).

You add days (i.e., you go forward in time) with a positive
offset "DELTA", and you subtract days (i.e., you go backwards
in time) with a negative offset.

Note that an exception ("invalid date") is raised if the
given date argument does not constitute a valid date.

In scalar context, the method just returns the resulting date
object, whereas in list context the method not only returns the
new date, but also a "rest". This rest is useful for cases in
which your profile contains "half" holidays, or when you add
or subtract fractions of a day.

Sometimes it is not possible to accommodate the requested number
of work days, and a rest remains.

This rest can currently only assume the value "0.0" (zero),
"-0.5" (minus one half) or "0.5" (one half), provided you
use only integral or multiples of 0.5 as offsets. A rest
of zero indicates that the calculation yielded an exact
result. If the rest is 0.5 or -0.5, this is to be interpreted
as "the resulting date at 12:00 o'clock", instead of as "the
resulting date at 0:00 o'clock".

The rest is always positive (or zero) if the offset "DELTA"
is positive (or zero), and always negative (or zero) if the
offset is negative (or zero).

Example:

  #!perl
  use Date::Calendar;
  use Date::Calendar::Profiles qw( $Profiles );
  $year = shift;
  $cal = Date::Calendar->new( $Profiles->{'sdm-MUC'} );
  ($date,$rest) = $cal->add_delta_workdays($year,1,3, -3);
  $date->date_format(1);
  print "\$date = $date, \$rest = $rest.\n";
  __END__

This program calculates "January 3rd of the given year minus
3 work days":

  > perl test.pl 2001
  $date = 28-Dec-2000, $rest = 0.
  > perl test.pl 2002
  $date = 28-Dec-2001, $rest = -0.5.

Note that December 31st is a "half" holiday in 2001 for the
calendar profile used in this example.

You can easily verify the results above with the help of the
"calendar.cgi" CGI script or the "linearcal.pl" script from
the "examples" subdirectory in the Date::Calc distribution.

B<BEWARE> that this method may currently return unexpected
(i.e., contradicting the above documentation) or plain wrong
results when going back in time (this is a bug!).

However, it works correctly and as documented above when
going forward in time.

=item *

C<$flag = $calendar-E<gt>is_full(YEAR,MONTH,DAY|DATE);>

This method returns "true" ("1") if the bit corresponding to
the given date is set in the bit vector representing "full"
holidays, and "false" ("0") otherwise.

I.e., the method returns "true" if the given date is a (full)
holiday (according to the calendar profile associated with the
given calendar object).

The corresponding Date::Calendar::Year object is created first
and stored in the calendar object's cache if necessary (if it's
not already there).

Note that you can get a reference to this bit vector (in order
to use this bit vector in bit vector operations) as follows:

  $vec_full = $calendar->year($year)->vec_full();

The number of bits in this bit vector is the same as the number
of days in the given year "C<$year>", which you can retrieve
through either "C<$days = $vec_full-E<gt>Size();>" or
"C<$days = $year-E<gt>val_days();>".

See L<Date::Calendar::Year(3)> and L<Bit::Vector(3)> for more
details.

=item *

C<$flag = $calendar-E<gt>is_half(YEAR,MONTH,DAY|DATE);>

This method returns "true" ("1") if the bit corresponding to
the given date is set in the bit vector representing "half"
holidays, and "false" ("0") otherwise.

I.e., the method returns "true" if the given date is a half
holiday (according to the calendar profile associated with the
given calendar object).

Note that if a date is a "full" holiday, the "half" bit is
never set, even if you try to do so in your calendar profile,
on purpose or by accident.

The corresponding Date::Calendar::Year object is created first
and stored in the calendar object's cache if necessary (if it's
not already there).

Note that you can get a reference to this bit vector (in order
to use this bit vector in bit vector operations) as follows:

  $vec_half = $calendar->year($year)->vec_half();

The number of bits in this bit vector is the same as the number
of days in the given year "C<$year>", which you can retrieve
through either "C<$days = $vec_half-E<gt>Size();>" or
"C<$days = $year-E<gt>val_days();>".

See L<Date::Calendar::Year(3)> and L<Bit::Vector(3)> for more
details.

=item *

C<$flag = $calendar-E<gt>is_work(YEAR,MONTH,DAY|DATE);>

This method returns "true" ("1") if the bit corresponding to
the given date is set in the bit vector used to perform all
sorts of calculations, and "false" ("0") otherwise.

The corresponding Date::Calendar::Year object is created first
and stored in the calendar object's cache if necessary (if it's
not already there).

B<BEWARE> that the "work" in this method's name does B<NOT>
come from "work days"!

It comes from the fact that the corresponding bit vector can
be used for any "work" that you need to do. In other words,
it's a "work space".

Therefore, this bit vector might contain about everything you
could imagine - including a bit pattern which marks all "work
days" with set bits, if it so happens!

But you better don't rely on it, unless you put the bit pattern
there yourself in the first place.

Note that you can get a reference to this bit vector (in order
to fill it with any bit pattern you like) as follows:

  $vec_work = $calendar->year($year)->vec_work();

The number of bits in this bit vector is the same as the number
of days in the given year "C<$year>", which you can retrieve
through either "C<$days = $vec_work-E<gt>Size();>" or
"C<$days = $year-E<gt>val_days();>".

See L<Date::Calendar::Year(3)> and L<Bit::Vector(3)> for more
details.

=back

=head1 SEE ALSO

Date::Calendar::Year(3), Date::Calendar::Profiles(3),
Date::Calc::Object(3), Date::Calc(3), Date::Calc::Util(3),
Bit::Vector(3).

=head1 LIMITATIONS

The calendar profiles included in L<Date::Calendar::Profiles(3)>
usually do not take historical irregularities into account
(even though some do in order to show how this can be done),
they only provide means for calculating B<regularly> recurring
events (B<the profiles should therefore not be relied upon
for historical faithfulness>).

=head1 KNOWN BUGS

The method "add_delta_workdays()" is known to produce results
which are sometimes off by one working day when a negative
offset is used. As a workaround, try to add one working day
first and then subtract one working day more than initially
intended. See also the file "examples/bug.pl" for how to do
this.

=head1 VERSION

This man page documents "Date::Calendar" version 6.3.

=head1 AUTHOR

  Steffen Beyer
  mailto:STBEY@cpan.org
  http://www.engelschall.com/u/sb/download/

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2000 - 2009 by Steffen Beyer. All rights reserved.

=head1 LICENSE

This package is free software; you can use, modify and redistribute
it under the same terms as Perl itself, i.e., at your option, under
the terms either of the "Artistic License" or the "GNU General Public
License".

The C library at the core of the module "Date::Calc::XS" can, at your
discretion, also be used, modified and redistributed under the terms
of the "GNU Library General Public License".

Please refer to the files "Artistic.txt", "GNU_GPL.txt" and
"GNU_LGPL.txt" in the "license" subdirectory of this distribution
for any details!

=head1 DISCLAIMER

This package is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

See the "GNU General Public License" for more details.