Finance::Currency::Convert - Convert currencies and fetch their exchange rates (with Finance::Quote) use Finance::Currency::Convert; my $converter = new Finance::Currency::Convert; $amount_euro = $converter->convert(100, "DEM", "EUR"); $amount_euro = $converter->convertToEuro(100, "DEM"); $amount_dem = $converter->convertFromEuro(100, "DEM"); $converter->updateRates("EUR", "DEM", "USD"); $converter->setRatesFile(".rates"); $converter->writeRatesFile(); This module converts currencies. It has built in the fixed exchange rates for all Euro currencies (as of November 2000). If you wish to use other / more currencies, you can automatically fetch their exchange rates from the internet and (optionally) store them in a file for later reference. Use this module if you have large volumes of currency data to convert. Using the exchange rates from memory makes it a lot faster than using Finance::Quote directly and will save you the duty of storing the exchange rates yourself.

CURRENCY SYMBOLS
Finance::Currency::Convert uses the three character ISO currency codes used by Finance::Quote. Here is a list of currency codes. Currencies with built-in rates (complete): EUR Euro ATS Austrian Schilling BEF Belgiam Franc DEM German Mark ESP Spanish Peseta FIM Finnish Mark FRF French Franc GRD Greek Drachma IEP Irish Punt ITL Italian Lira LUF Luxembourg Franc NLG Dutch Guilder PTE Portuguese Escudo Other currencies (incomplete): AUD Australian Dollar CHF Swiss Franc HKD Hong Kong Dollar JPY Japanese Yen USD US Dollar

NEW
my $converter = new Finance::Currency::Convert; The newly created conversion object will by default only know how to convert Euro currencies. To "teach" it more currencies use updateRates.

CONVERT
$amount_euro = $converter->convert(100, "DEM", "EUR"); This will convert 100 German Marks into the equivalent amount Euro.

CONVERTTOEURO
$amount_euro = $converter->convertToEuro(100, "DEM"); This will convert 100 German Marks into the equivalent amount Euro. This function is simply shorthand for calling convert directly with "EUR" als the second (target) currency.

CONVERTFROMEURO
$amount_dem = $converter->convertFromEuro(100, "DEM"); This will convert 100 Eurointo the equivalent amount German Marks. This function is simply shorthand for calling convert directly with "EUR" als the first (source) currency.

UPDATERATES
$converter->updateRates("USD"); $converter->updateRates("EUR", "DEM", "USD"); This will fetch the exchange rates for one or more currencies using Finance::Quote and update the exchange rates in memory. This method will fetach all combinations of exchange rates between the named currencies and the ones already in memory. This may result in a large number of requests to Finance::Quote. To avoid network overhead you can store the retrieved rates with setRatesFile() / writeRatesFile() once you have retrieved them and load them again with setRatesFile().

SETUSERAGENT
$converter->setUserAgent("MyCurrencyAgent 1.0"); Set the user agent string to be used by Finance::Quote.

SETRATE
$converter->setRate("EUR", "USD", 999); Set one exchange rate. Used internally by updateRates, but may be of use if you have to add a rate manually.

SETRATESFILE
$converter->setRatesFile(".rates"); Name the file where exchange rates are stored. If it already exists it will be read into memory.

READRATESFILE
$converter->readRatesFile(); Usually called internally by setRatesFile, but may also be called directly to revert to the rates stored in the file. Calling readRatesFile() will erase all existing exchange rates in memory.

WRITERATESFILE
$converter->writeRatesFile(); Call this function to save table with exchange rates from memory to the file named by setRatesFile() eg. after fetching new rates with updateRates. Jan Willamowius <jan@willamowius.de>, http://www.willamowius.de with help from many nice colleagues at http://www.mobile.de Finance::Quote This module is only needed for fetching exchange rates. There is no need to install it when only Euro currencies are used.