The Perl localtime() function is useful for getting the current system time. It returns a nine element array of values which can then be translated into different formats, such as the YYYY-MM-DD date format used for Oracle and MySQL databases. It is useful for situations where you need to do more than echo variables such as LAST_MODIFIED for modification dates.
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Today is Wednesday
The month is August
This is day 232 of the year 2008
The time this statement was executed (24 hour clock): 13:16:30
Todays date in typical database format: 2008-08-20
This convenient time stamp is the result of using: scalar localtime
Wed Aug 20 13:16:30 2008
A similar Perl function gmtime() returns elements in the standard Greenwich time zone. GMT timestamp:
Wed Aug 20 20:16:30 2008
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