DateTime::Format::Strptime This module replicates most of Strptime for DateTime. Strptime is the unix command that is the reverse of Strftime. While Strftime takes a DateTime and outputs it in a given format, Strptime takes a DateTime and a format and returns the DateTime object associated. For more information, see the POD attached to lib/DateTime/Format/Strptime.pm INSTALLATION: Use CPAN or CPANPLUS - there's no config in the process that requires you to do anything strange. For those of you who like it the manual way, the recipe is the same as normal: perl Makefile.PL make make test make install If you are on a windows box you should use 'nmake' rather than 'make'. This module contains no XS code and thus should install anywhere.