---
name: "Date::ICal::Duration"
section: "3pm"
platform: "linux"
package: "libdate-ical-perl"
version: "1.72-3"
release: "Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/Date::ICal::Duration"
---

# Date::ICal::Duration(3pm)

durations in iCalendar format, for math purposes.

## NAME

Date::ICal::Duration - durations in iCalendar format, for math purposes.

## VERSION

`$Revision:` 1.61 $

## SYNOPSIS

```
    use Date::ICal::Duration;
    $d = Date::ICal::Duration->new( ical => '-P1W3DT2H3M45S' );
    $d = Date::ICal::Duration->new( weeks => 1,
                                    days => 1,
                                    hours => 6,
                                    minutes => 15,
                                    seconds => 45);
    # a one hour duration, without other components
    $d = Date::ICal::Duration->new( seconds => "3600");
    # Read-only accessors:
    $d->weeks;
    $d->days;
    $d->hours;
    $d->minutes;
    $d->seconds;
    $d->sign;
    # TODO: Resolve sign() discussion from rk-devel and update synopsis.

    $d->as_seconds ();   # returns just seconds
    $d->as_elements ();  # returns a hash of elements, like the accessors above
    $d->as_ical();       # returns an iCalendar duration string
```

## DESCRIPTION

This is a trivial class for representing duration objects, for doing math in Date::ICal

## AUTHOR

Rich Bowen, and the Reefknot team (www.reefknot.org)

Last touched by `$Author:` rbowen $

## METHODS

Date::ICal::Duration has the following methods available:

### new

A new Date::ICal::Duration object can be created with an iCalendar string :

```
    my $ical = Date::ICal::Duration->new ( ical => 'P3W2D' );
    # 3 weeks, 2 days, positive direction
    my $ical = Date::ICal::Duration->new ( ical => '-P6H3M30S' );
    # 6 hours, 3 minutes, 30 seconds, negative direction
```

Or with a number of seconds:

```
    my $ical = Date::ICal::Duration->new ( seconds => "3600" );
    # one hour positive
```

Or, better still, create it with components

```
    my $date = Date::ICal::Duration->new (
                           weeks => 6,
                           days => 2,
                           hours => 7,
                           minutes => 15,
                           seconds => 47,
                           sign => "+"
                           );
```

The sign defaults to "+", but "+" and "-" are legal values.

### sign, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds

Read-only accessors for the elements of the object.

### as\_seconds

Returns the duration in raw seconds.

WARNING -- this folds in the number of days, assuming that they are always 86400 seconds long (which is not true twice a year in areas that honor daylight savings time).  If you're using this for date arithmetic, consider using the *add()* method from a Date::ICal object, as this will behave better. Otherwise, you might experience some error when working with times that are specified in a time zone that observes daylight savings time.

### as\_days

```
    $days = $duration->as_days;
```

Returns the duration as a number of days. Not to be confused with the `"days"` method, this method returns the total number of days, rather than mod'ing out the complete weeks. Thus, if we have a duration of 33 days, `"weeks"` will return 4, `"days"` will return 5, but `"as_days"` will return 33.

Note that this is a lazy convenience function which is just weeks\*7 + days.

### as\_ical

Return the duration in an iCalendar format value string (e.g., "PT2H0M0S")

### as\_elements

Returns the duration as a hashref of elements.

## INTERNALS

head2 GENERAL MODEL

Internally, we store 3 data values: a number of days, a number of seconds (anything shorter than a day), and a sign (1 or -1). We are assuming that a day is 24 hours for purposes of this module; yes, we know that's not completely accurate because of daylight-savings-time switchovers, but it's mostly correct. Suggestions are welcome.

NOTE: The methods below SHOULD NOT be relied on to stay the same in future versions.

### \_set\_from\_ical ($self, $duration\_string)

Converts a RFC2445 DURATION format string to the internal storage format.

### \_parse\_ical\_string ($string)

Regular expression for parsing iCalendar into usable values.

### \_set\_from\_components ($self, $hashref)

Converts from a hashref to the internal storage format. The hashref can contain elements "sign", "weeks", "days", "hours", "minutes", "seconds".

### \_set\_from\_ical ($self, $num\_seconds)

Sets internal data storage properly if we were only given seconds as a parameter.

### $self-\>*\_hms()*;

Return an arrayref to hours, minutes, and second components, or undef if nsecs is undefined.  If given an arrayref, computes the new nsecs value  for the duration.

### $self-\>*\_wd()*

Return an arrayref to weeks and day components, or undef if ndays is undefined.  If Given an arrayref, computs the new ndays value for the duration.