What are date and time in Perl?
Localtime
The in-built localtime() function in Perl displays the following in local time:
Variable | Meaning |
sec | seconds |
min | minutes |
hour | hours |
mday | day of month |
month | month |
year | year since 1900 |
wday | day of week |
yday | day of year |
isdst | hours of daylight saving time |
Below is an example of how you can use the localtime() function:
$timedisplay = localtime();print "local time: $timedisplay\n";
Gmtime
The gmtime() function in Perl standardizes the time to Greenwich Mean Time while also keeping the daylight saving hours to 0, as there are no daylight savings in GMT. Below is an example of how you can use gmtime():
$timedisplay = gmtime();print "local time: $timedisplay\n";
Epoch time
The time() function in Perl returns the number of seconds elapsed since Jan 1, 1970. Following is an example of how you can use the time() function:
$timedisplay = time();print "Seconds elapsed: $timedisplay\n";
Strftime
The strftime() function in Perl can be used to format time. The table below explains what each specifier in the function stands for:
Specifier | Meaning |
%a | name of the weekday in abbreviated format |
%A | name of weekday |
%b | name of the month in abbreviated format |
%B | name of month |
%c | date and time representation |
%d | day of month, padded with zero in case of single digits |
%D | MM/DD/YY |
%e | day of month, not padded |
%H | hour in 24-hour format |
%I | hours in 12-hour format |
%j | day of year |
%M | month |
%m | minute |
%p | AM or PM |
%r | clock time displayed in 12-hours |
%R | clock time displayed in 24-hours |
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