4 ms·

en-CA has the best date format: yyyy-MM-dd

ithkuil 5y ago
Apparently it's not obvious to all why this is the best, so let's be explicit: Dates in this format can be sorted lexicographically
- the_pwner224 5y ago
  It's also unambiguous. Nobody uses yyyy-dd-mm, whereas xx/xx/yy can be misinterpreted.
  - gmueckl 5y ago
    I distinctly remember SQL Server 2000 pulling that one on me. I had switched a DB app over to using ISO dates exclusively in its queries to avoid the month-day-ordering confusion and then the bloody thing earnestly started to parse yyyy-mm-dd dates as yyyy-dd-mm at every chance it got. So much for unambiguous date formats!
  - skissane 5y ago
    Apparently, Kazakhstan uses yyyy-dd-mm, but only in Kazakh (not in Russian.) I guess if we are only talking about English speakers, that’s not an issue, since if Kazakhs don’t write dates that way in Russian, I presume they wouldn’t do it that way in English either
bawolff 5y ago
As a canadian, i'm pretty sure i've never seen anyone use that date format.
- slavik81 5y ago
  If you do your taxes on paper, you'll have entered your date of birth in that way (upper right corner): https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/cra-arc/formspubs/pbg/5015-r/5015-r-20e.pdf https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/cra-arc/formspubs/pbg/5015...
  - bawolff 5y ago
    Fair. Also i just realized that cheques also use that format. Colloquially though i dont see that format very much.
checkyoursudo 5y ago
My (and every other) Swedish social security number uses this format plus 4 more digits. It ends up being the format I usually default to when writing a date. I feel like it is the least likely to be misconstrued, when I start with the full year. Would many people ever mistake it for yyyy-dd-mm?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
crossroadsguy 5y ago
As an Indian who thinks of date as (in order) day → month → year for me dd-MM-yyyy is the standard. But given a choice I'd prefer something like dd-MON-yyyy because there is such an incongruous mixture of dd-MM and MM-dd across Indian services that often you are not sure unless one of the numbers crosses 12.
- jefftk 5y ago
  A nice thing about yyyy-mm-dd, in addition to being the standard, is that since no one uses yyyy-dd-mm it's unambiguous
shagie 5y ago
That's the official one from the all numeric date... but... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_and_time_notation_in_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_and_time_notation_in_Cana... All of the following dates are valid: 3 May 2021 May 3, 2021 3 mai 2021 2021-05-03 And from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country > ISO 8601 is the only format that the Government of Canada and Standards Council of Canada officially recommend for all-numeric dates.[28][29][30] But, their usage differs depending of many contexts.[31][32] > All three formats are used in Canada for long format. > For English speakers, MDY was preferred form (mmm-dd-yyyy) (Example: April 9, 2019) and used by nearly all English language publications and media companies as well as majority of English language government documents.[citation needed] > For both French and sometimes English speakers, DMY are used (dd-mmm-yyyy) (Example: 9 April 2019/le 9 avril 2019) and also used in formal letters, academic papers, military, many media companies and even some governmental documents, particularly in French-language ones. > Federal regulations for shelf life dates on perishable goods mandate a year/month/day format, but allow the month to be written in full, in both official languages, or with a set of standardized two-letter bilingual codes such as 2019 JA 07 or 19 JA 07.
- rubatuga 5y ago
  Still, the one that contains only numbers (the most potentially ambiguous) is of the format yyyy-MM-dd

Apparently it's not obvious to all why this is the best, so let's be explicit: Dates in this format can be sorted lexicographically

the_pwner224 5y ago
It's also unambiguous. Nobody uses yyyy-dd-mm, whereas xx/xx/yy can be misinterpreted.
- gmueckl 5y ago
  I distinctly remember SQL Server 2000 pulling that one on me. I had switched a DB app over to using ISO dates exclusively in its queries to avoid the month-day-ordering confusion and then the bloody thing earnestly started to parse yyyy-mm-dd dates as yyyy-dd-mm at every chance it got. So much for unambiguous date formats!
- skissane 5y ago
  Apparently, Kazakhstan uses yyyy-dd-mm, but only in Kazakh (not in Russian.) I guess if we are only talking about English speakers, that’s not an issue, since if Kazakhs don’t write dates that way in Russian, I presume they wouldn’t do it that way in English either

bawolff 5y ago

As a canadian, i'm pretty sure i've never seen anyone use that date format.

slavik81 5y ago
If you do your taxes on paper, you'll have entered your date of birth in that way (upper right corner): https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/cra-arc/formspubs/pbg/5015-r/5015-r-20e.pdf https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/cra-arc/formspubs/pbg/5015...
- bawolff 5y ago
  Fair. Also i just realized that cheques also use that format. Colloquially though i dont see that format very much.

checkyoursudo 5y ago

My (and every other) Swedish social security number uses this format plus 4 more digits. It ends up being the format I usually default to when writing a date. I feel like it is the least likely to be misconstrued, when I start with the full year. Would many people ever mistake it for yyyy-dd-mm?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

crossroadsguy 5y ago

As an Indian who thinks of date as (in order) day → month → year for me dd-MM-yyyy is the standard. But given a choice I'd prefer something like dd-MON-yyyy because there is such an incongruous mixture of dd-MM and MM-dd across Indian services that often you are not sure unless one of the numbers crosses 12.

jefftk 5y ago
A nice thing about yyyy-mm-dd, in addition to being the standard, is that since no one uses yyyy-dd-mm it's unambiguous

shagie 5y ago

That's the official one from the all numeric date... but... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_and_time_notation_in_Canada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_and_time_notation_in_Cana... All of the following dates are valid: 3 May 2021 May 3, 2021 3 mai 2021 2021-05-03 And from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country > ISO 8601 is the only format that the Government of Canada and Standards Council of Canada officially recommend for all-numeric dates.[28][29][30] But, their usage differs depending of many contexts.[31][32] > All three formats are used in Canada for long format. > For English speakers, MDY was preferred form (mmm-dd-yyyy) (Example: April 9, 2019) and used by nearly all English language publications and media companies as well as majority of English language government documents.[citation needed] > For both French and sometimes English speakers, DMY are used (dd-mmm-yyyy) (Example: 9 April 2019/le 9 avril 2019) and also used in formal letters, academic papers, military, many media companies and even some governmental documents, particularly in French-language ones. > Federal regulations for shelf life dates on perishable goods mandate a year/month/day format, but allow the month to be written in full, in both official languages, or with a set of standardized two-letter bilingual codes such as 2019 JA 07 or 19 JA 07.

rubatuga 5y ago
Still, the one that contains only numbers (the most potentially ambiguous) is of the format yyyy-MM-dd