Use the Time::Piece module.
#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Time::Piece;
my $time = Time::Piece->new;
my $datetime = $time->strftime("%b %d, %Y");
print "$datetime\n";
This will produce a result in this format.
Jan 16, 2019
Following are commonly used options.
| Option | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| %Y | Year | 2018 |
| %y | Year | 18 |
| %m | Month | 01 |
| %b | Month | Jan |
| %B | Month | January |
| %d | Day (with leading zero) | 04 |
| %-d | Day (without leading zero) | 4 |
| %H | Hour (24 hour format) | 22 |
| %I | Hour (12 hour format) | 10 |
| %M | Minute | 56 |
| %S | Second | 23 |
| %p | AM or PM | AM |
| %P | am or pm | pm |
Future / Past date
The add_years option can be used to add or subtract years. This will go back 1 year.
my $lastYear = $time->add_years(-1)->strftime(%b %d, %Y);
However, consider it is January. If you use add_months(-1) then it becomes December, and you would also have to include add_years(-1). This can get unruley quickly. There is where Time::Seconds comes in handy.
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use Time::Piece;
use Time::Seconds;
my $time = Time::Piece->new;
my $last_month = ($time - ONE_MONTH)->strftime("%Y%m%d");
my $two_months_ago = ($time - ONE_MONTH * 2)->strftime("%Y%m%d");