Natural Date Parser

• Crates: https://crates.io/crates/natural-date-parser
• Docs: https://docs.rs/natural-date-parser/0.1.2

Brief Description

Name: natural-date-parser

A parser that converts natural language date and time expressions into Rust-compatible DateTime formats.

Natural Date Parser is a Rust project designed to parse human-friendly, natural language date and time expressions, such as "next Monday," "tomorrow at 5 PM," or "3 weeks from now." This parser converts these expressions into structured DateTime objects, making them usable in scheduling applications, reminders, or other time-based software.

Technical Description

Parsing Process

The parser is built using the Pest parsing library and is designed to recognize a variety of natural language phrases related to dates and times. These include:

• Simple Relative Dates: "today," "tomorrow," "yesterday."
• Day of the Week Expressions: "next Monday," "last Friday."
• Complex Relative Time Expressions: "in 3 days," "2 weeks from now," "4 months ago."
• Combined Date and Time Expressions: "next Thursday at 10 AM," "tomorrow at 5:30 PM."

How It Works

The parsing rules:

date_expression = { SOI ~ (relative_day_and_specific_time | relative_date | relative_term | specific_day_and_time | specific_day | specific_time | future_time ) ~ EOI }

relative_day_and_specific_time = { ( relative_date | relative_term ) ~ "at" ~ specific_time }

relative_date         = { next_or_last ~ specific_day }
relative_term         = { tomorrow | today | yesterday }
specific_day_and_time = { specific_day ~ "at" ~ specific_time }

specific_day   = { monday | tuesday | wednesday | thursday | friday | saturday | sunday }
specific_time  = { hour ~ ":" ~ minute ~ am_pm }
future_time    = { "in" ~ number ~ time_unit }

next_or_last = { next | last | this }

hour   = { ASCII_DIGIT+ }
minute = { ASCII_DIGIT+ }
am_pm  = { am | pm }

number    = { ASCII_DIGIT+ }
time_unit = { day_s | week_s | month_s | year_s }

Use Cases

The output DateTime values can be used in a variety of applications:

• Scheduling Apps: Automatically parse reminders like "next Monday" and "in 3 days" into exact dates.
• Task Management: Set deadlines with natural language, making it easier to schedule tasks.
• Chatbots and Virtual Assistants: Interpret user queries about dates and times with ease.

Getting Started

To start using Natural Date Parser, you can use crate on crates.io

Example Usage