This Input Handler verifies that it is dealing with a reasonable date. Reasonably means anything that Date::Manip thinks is sensible, so you could use any of (for example): "December 12, 2001" "12th December, 2001" "2001-12-12" "next Tuesday" "third Wednesday in March" See Date::Manip for much more information on what date formats are acceptable. The resulting date will be a Date::Simple object. Date::Simple for more information on this.