any_date 1.0.3

A package for parsing String into DateTime in any format. Easy way to parse a date in any format and in any language, while always respecting ISO and RFC formats.

Package to improve DateTime manipulation, especially by allowing parsing any format. Heavily inspired by python's dateutil package.

Summary

In a glance, these are the features:

1. Easy parsing of a String with many date formats into a DateTime object
2. Same flexibility supported in almost any Locale. Not just English, but any language and culture
3. Always compliant with ISO 8601 and major RFCs (822, 2822, 1123, 1036 and 3339), regardless of Locale
4. Supports UNIX time in either seconds, milliseconds, microseconds, or nanoseconds since epoch

Basic 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)

However, you may notice that the example above is in English. What if you want a different Locale? You can use the AnyDate.fromLocale() factory method to get the desired parser:

// American English
final parser1 = AnyDate.fromLocale('en-US');
final date1 = parser.parse('August 13, 2023');
// note that even if formatting is unusual for locale, it can still understand unambiguous dates
final sameDate = parser.parse('13 August 2023'); // this is not common for US locale, but it still parses normally


// Brazilian Portuguese
final parser2 = AnyDate.fromLocale('pt-BR');
final date2 = parser.parse('13 de Agosto de 2023');

// again, they all resolve to same DateTime value

Solving ambiguous cases

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);

Using a Locale based parser also allows you to solve ambiguity based on that culture:

// same example:
const ambiguousDate = '01/02/03';

// American English
final parser1 = AnyDate.fromLocale('en-US');
final date1 = parser.parse(ambiguousDate); // the ambiguous date results in Jan 2, 2003 (mm/dd/yy)


// Brazilian Portuguese
final parser2 = AnyDate.fromLocale('pt-BR');
final date2 = parser.parse(ambiguousDate); // the ambiguous date results in Feb 1, 2003 (dd/mm/yy)

Feedback appreciated 💙