NAME

Date::Japanese::Era - Conversion between Japanese Era / Gregorian calendar

SYNOPSIS

use Date::Japanese::Era;

# from Gregorian (month + day required)
$era = Date::Japanese::Era->new(1970, 1, 1);

# from Japanese Era
$era = Date::Japanese::Era->new('¾¼ÏÂ', 52);

$name      = $era->name;         # '¾¼ÏÂ' in EUC-jp (default)
$gengou    = $era->gengou;       # same

$year      = $era->year;	   # 52
$gregorian = $era->gregorian_year;  	   # 1977

DESCRIPTION

Date::Japanese::Era handles conversion between Japanese Era and Gregorian calendar.

METHODS

new

$era = Date::Japanese::Era->new($year, $month, $day);
$era = Date::Japanese::Era->new($era_name, $year);

Constructs new Date::Japanese::Era instance. When constructed from Gregorian date, month and day is required. You need Date::Calc to construct from Gregorian.

Name of era can be either of Japanese / ASCII. Input encodings can be specified via codeset(), suppose you have Jcode module installed. Default is EUC-JP.

Exceptions are thrown when inputs are invalid (e.g: non-existent era-name and year combination, unknwon era-name, etc.).

codeset

$codeset = Date::Japanese::Era->codeset;
Date::Japanese::Era->codeset($encoding);

sets / gets external encoding of Japanese era names. For example with the follwing code, input and output of era names are encoded in UTF-8.

Date::Japanese::Era->codeset('utf8');
$era = Date::Japanese::Era->new($name, $year); # $name is UTF-8
print $era->name;                              # also UTF-8

You need Jcode module installed to make use of this feature.

name

$name = $era->name;

returns era name in Japanese. Encoding can be specified via codeset() class method. Default is EUC-JP.

gengou

alias for name().

name_ascii

$name_ascii = $era->name_ascii;

returns era name in US-ASCII.

year

$year = $era->year;

returns year as Japanese era.

gregorian_year

$year = $era->gregorian_year;

returns year as Gregorian.

EXAMPLES

# 2001 is H-13
my $era = Date::Japanese::Era->new(2001, 8, 31);
printf "%s-%s", uc(substr($era->name_ascii, 0, 1)), $era->year;

# to Gregorian
my $era = Date::Japanese::Era->new('Ê¿À®', 13);
print $era->gregorian_year;

CAVEATS

• The day era just changed is handled as newer one.

• Currently supported era is up to 'meiji'.

• If someday current era (heisei) is changed, Date::Japanese::Era should be upgraded. (Table is declared as global variable, so you can overwrite it if necessary).

TODO

• Date parameters can be in various format. I should replace Date::Simple or whatever for that.

• Support earlier eras.

AUTHOR

Tatsuhiko Miyagawa <miyagawa@bulknews.net>

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

SEE ALSO

Date::Calc, Jcode, Date::Simple