localtime() returns an array with populated with the details about the current time and date (unless you feed it a date in Perl time() format).
The key, then is to get your text date into Perl time format. Some modules that can help you are Date::Manip, Date::Calc, and Time::Local. I prefer the last one because it is simpler than the first two (they handle a lot of things you don't need just for this). Once you get your date in Perl time, you can just subtract the requisite number of seconds to get the date you want. Of course, if you just want 72 days from right now, it's even easier: my $dateInThePast = time - 72 * 86400; -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 9:10 AM To: Rafael Morales Cc: beginners@perl.org Subject: Re: Dates again. I am assuming that localtime() returns the time in unix file format (number of seconds since 12:00 AM on January 01, 1970). Why don't you convert 72 days to seconds and subtract that number from the output of localtime()? For example, 72 days = 72 x 3600 x 24 seconds = 6220800 seconds <snip> -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://learn.perl.org/> <http://learn.perl.org/first-response>