>> * Prior Art
>>
>> func who where
>> -----------------------------------------------------
>> dparsetime() RAND/UCI MH
>> getabsdate() Moraes C News
>> getdate() USL Sys V Rel 4
>> getdate() Bellovin/Salz/Berets B News
>> parsedate() Hamey/Accetta Mach
>> partime() Harrenstien/Eggert RCS
>> strptime() Harris SunOS 4.1[.x]
> Are there any routines available that take a "format" parameter so that they
> can scan dates that are in ambiguous formats.
strptime() [at least] falls into this category -- I believed Guy intended
it as the inverse of strptime() [or at least as close as you can get].
So, ...
char *
strptime(buf, fmt, tm)
char *buf;
char *fmt;
struct tm *tm;
strptime() converts the character string pointed to by buf
to a time value, which is stored in the tm structure pointed
to by tm, using the format specified by fmt.
It is available under SunOS.
> I would like to be able to scan dates in any of the following formats:
>
> M-D-Y T D-M-Y T
There is no getting around that those D/M-numeric forms are just plain
ambiguous. The best you can do is to use some ``internationalization''
feature like setlocale(LC_TIME, ...), or to just prefer one over the
other.
> I would like to be able to scan dates in any of the following formats:
>
> M-D-Y T D-M-Y T Y-M-D T
> M/D/Y T D/M/Y T Y/M/D T
> M D Y T D M Y T Y M D T
> M.D.Y T D.M.Y T Y.M.D T
Opinion: Any generalized date parser is overkill for these restricted
situations.
Brad
