Convert string to date with DateTime::Format::Strptime

Question

From this answer, I'm using DateTime::Format::Strptime to grab the date from a string.

I'm using the following pattern: %m%d%Y%n%T. This should be matching:

• %m: The month number (01-12). This will parse single digit numbers as well.
• %d: The day of month (01-31). This will parse single digit numbers as well.
• %Y: The year, including century (for example, 1991).
• %n: Arbitrary whitespace.
• %T: Equivalent to %H:%M:%S:
  • %H: The hour (00-23). This will parse single digit numbers as well.
  • %M: The minute (00-59). This will parse single digit numbers as well.
  • %S: The second (0-60; 60 may occur for leap seconds. See DateTime::LeapSecond).

However, on input: [05/18/2011 14:14:05] it's failing with the error:

Your datetime does not match your pattern

As far as I can see, my pattern matches the input pattern. Where am I going wrong?

Relevant code is below:

use DateTime::Format::Strptime qw( );

my $format = DateTime::Format::Strptime->new(
   pattern   => '%m%d%Y%n%T',
   time_zone => 'local',
   on_error  => 'croak',
);

my $dt = $fields->[1] ;
print "Date:[$dt]\n";
my $dateopen = $format->parse_datetime($dt);

Output:

Date:[05/18/2011 14:14:05]
Your datetime does not match your pattern

Answer 1

The non-pattern characters are important as well. You have slashes between your date components, hence the pattern '%m/%d/%Y%n%T' works while yours doesn't.

Note that the pattern %D would not work either as it is a shortcut for %m%d%Y and doesn't include the slashes either.