Package to improve DateTime manipulation, especially by allowing parsing any format.

There are no new classes to represent DateTime. Don't reinvent the wheel, just make it easier to use DateTime.

Heavily inspired by python's dateutil package.

Usage

Usage is simple, use the AnyDate() constructor to create a parser with the desired settings, and use it to parse any String into DateTime, regardless of the format.

Note that, in order to resolve ambiguity, some settings are required either on the AnyDate() constructor or on the AnyDate.defaultSettings static attribute.

const parser = AnyDate();
final date = parser.parse('13 Aug 2023');
final sameDate = parser.parse('Aug 13 2023');
final stillTheSame = parser.parser('2023, August 13');
// in all cases date is parsed as DateTime(2023, 08, 13)

Moreover, the parser can be used to solve ambiguous cases. Look at the following example:

// what date is this? 1 Feb 2003, 2 Jan 2003, or worse 2 Mar 2001?
// this could be dd/mm/yy, mm/dd/yy or yy/mm/dd
const ambiguousDate = '01/02/03';

// the parser can be configured for all cases:
// mm/dd/yy (this is the default behaviour)
const parser1 = AnyDate();
final case1 = a.parse(ambiguousDate); // results in DateTime(2003, 1, 2);

// dd/mm/yy
const dayFirstInfo = DateParserInfo(dayFirst: true);
const parser2 = AnyDate(info: info);
final case2 = a.parse(ambiguousDate); // results in DateTime(2003, 2, 1);

// yy/mm/dd
const yearFirstInfo = DateParserInfo(yearFirst: true);
const parser3 = AnyDate(info: info);
final case3 = a.parse(ambiguousDate); // results in DateTime(2001, 2, 3);

It currently has basic support for time component as well, but there is still some work in progress. Feedback appreciated.