DateTime::Format::DBI - Find a parser class for a database connection.

  use DBI;
  use DateTime;
  use DateTime::Format::DBI;

  my $db = DBI->connect('dbi:...');
  my $db_parser = DateTime::Format::DBI->new($dbh);
  my $dt = DateTime->now();

  $db->do("UPDATE table SET dt=? WHERE foo='bar'",undef,
    $db_parser->format_datetime($dt);

This module finds a DateTime::Format::* class that is suitable for the use with a given DBI connection (and DBD::* driver).

It currently supports the following drivers: IBM DB2 (DB2), MySQL, # Oracle, PostgreSQL (Pg).

WARNING: This module provides a quick method to find the correct parser/formatter class. However, this is usually not enough for full database abstraction. You will usually have to care for differences not only in datetime syntax but also in the syntax and semantics of SQL datetime functions (and other SQL commands).

* new( $dbh )

Creates a new DateTime::Format::* instance the exact class of which depends on the driver used for the database connection referenced by $dbh.

DateTime::Format::DBI is just a front-end factory that will return one of the format classes based on the nature of your $dbh.

For information on the interface of the returned parser object, please see the documentation for the class pertaining to your particular $dbh.

In general, parser classes for databases will implement the following methods. For more information on the exact behaviour of these methods, see the documentation of the parser class.

* parse_datetime( $string )

Given a string containing a date and/or time representation from the database used, this method will return a new DateTime object.

If given an improperly formatted string, this method may die.

* format_datetime( $dt )

Given a DateTime object, this method returns a string appropriate as input for all or the most common date and date/time types of the database used.

* parse_duration( $string )

Given a string containing a duration representation from the database used, this method will return a new DateTime::Duration object.

If given an improperly formatted string, this method may die.

Not all databases and format/formatter classes support durations; please use UNIVERSAL::has to check for the availability of this method.

* format_duration( $du )

Given a DateTime::Duration object, this method returns a string appropriate as input for the duration or interval type of the database used.

Not all databases and parser/formatter classes support durations; please use UNIVERSAL::has to check for the availability of this method.

Parser/formatter classes may additionally define methods like parse_type or format_type (where type is derived from the SQL type); please see the documentation of the individual format class for more information.

Support for this module is provided via the datetime@perl.org email list. See http://lists.perl.org/ for more details.

Claus A. Färber <perl@cfaerber.name>

Copyright © 2003-2008 Claus A. Färber. All rights reserved.

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

The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.

DateTime, DBI

datetime@perl.org mailing list

http://datetime.perl.org/