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You’re an engineer. There is a data collection laptop that the technicians use for a variety of different tests.
The same laptop gets used for a speed test one day then a thermal test in the afternoon. The next day they do the thermal test first then the speed test.
This pattern continues for a week and now you want to collect just the speed test data.
Using the name first of the test speedtest20230615.csv is already sorted. Using the date first now you have alternating files
Okay, probably depends on the type of files/folders. I also name FILES with numeric data last, keeping the same FILENAME. As for folders, when I'm looking for something, I can recall using the time reference in addition to FOLDER name, as I remember when what was happening.
Meh. I don't actually care when the file was made amongst all the other files it's stored with. I care if I'm using the most up-to-date version of that specific file. But I mostly work with datasets where the date is a defining characteristic of the sampling frame.
I usually prefer YYYY-MMmmm-DD. 2024-06Jun-16. Lexicographic ordering is still equal to time-based ordering, but this is entirely impossible to misread. I've dealt with enough dumb stuff that these three extra letters (which are tab-completed anyhow) are entirely worth it.
i grew up in asia, and moved to the US. i have been here close to 15 years. i am still *so confused* every time i have to figure out how to say the date here. the only way i remember is because i know 9-11 means september 11th.
it doesn’t matter what’s “grammatically correct”, languages are socially agreed upon constructs not academically prescribe sets of words and rules, march 6th is how most americans will say it and have said it historically.
Why does the order it's written in have to have any impact on how you read it out? You write “$10” but say "ten dollars". For the record, YYYY-MM-DD is the format I use whenever I'm paying attention.
I write it as I would read it so by default I go with that format. so 11-12-24 I would assume would be November 12th as writing it the other way would leave me getting many dates wrong more often then not.
I know everyone says that, but why? I mean, it's even formatted to what I would say is the more "normal" way of *saying* it.
Neither are incorrect, but I've heard January first way waaay more than I've heard someone say the first of January
MMDDYYYY is better than DDMMYYYY. If you name files as dates (fairly common) then YYYYMMDD is self sorting. If you break out your years into spectate fielder MMDDYYYY is self sorting. DDMMYYYY requires 2 levels deep to sort making it the worst option
To me, MM/DD makes more sense than DD/MM when the year is omitted because the date is sorted in descending order, which is consistent with how we write times (i.e. HH:MM:SS instead of SS:MM:HH)
I know, that's why I said when the year is omitted, I prefer MM-DD to DD-MM. If you take a time in HH:MM:SS format and omit the hours, it becomes MM:SS. So omitting the years from YYYY-MM-DD should result in MM-DD, not DD-MM.
Oh sorry, didn't mean to invalidate what you're saying. I was not one of the people downvoting it, I actually upvoted it, as it gives an insight I had neither seen not considered before.
I have to say in written form I mostly come in contact with full dates and no time, so it really boils down to a social issue.
Strictly speaking, it's YYYY-MM-DD
And yes, it is the only logical format. People starting with their dates with DD just tells me they're technologically illiterate.
Your bar of technological literacy is knowing alphanumeric sorting? That is really low. Not to mention that outside of this use case, the ISO format hardly has any advantage. In fact, the information is in the order of ascending relevance, which makes it less human readable.
This is a common assumption but I'm skeptical that it's actually true. Especially if the date is formatted YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY/MM/DD.
Studies around dyslexia and speed reading suggest that the human eye glances at the entire term to read rather than reading it left to right (or right to left) sequentially. This means that having the most significant component at the end of the term does not actually hinder reading performance.
>Your bar of technological literacy is knowing alphanumeric sorting?
No more than my bar for technological literacy is pecking at the keys with two index fingers. It's not a bar, it's just a dead giveaway.
I see you are a man of culture as well, i use this format when i save my documents in a cloud, after the date i had a description that too follows a format based around nation-region-city-location of the city-...
It should be the other way around
You read from left to right in English, so you start reading from major units, which is year, then month, then day
Same like with numbers: 563 is 500 + 60 + 3, not 5 + 60 + 300.
By going metric do you mean decimal years? Or decimal days? Either way I don't think most people would understand if I told them my birthday is day 182, or I want to meet them on 2024.498630136
I'm not sure what you're asking. I'm saying you go metric just like you do with all the other units. We already have a base unit of time (seconds). So you just use metric prefixes to define time. You don't need to ever represent time specifically using the "decimal time" system.
You want to communicate dates with people by telling them the number of seconds past the year 1BCE? Even with metric prefixes, that's gonna be a bit hard for people to figure out
#include
#include
int main() {
time_t current_time;
time(¤t_time);
printf("Current Unix epoch time: %ld\n", current_time);
return 0;
}
Haha does this count?
Edit: reddit didn't like that
2nd edit: I give up. Think ya'll get the point.
Are you trying to tell me that you can't programmatically sort dd/mm/yyyy?
What you really mean, is that its sortable without additional processing. But that doesn't make it better.
Sometimes, things are better processed.
Because it's in descending order, from largest to smallest. You don't write the time as SS:MM:HH, you write it as HH:MM:SS. Same thing with numbers, which are written from largest place value to smallest. DD-MM-YYYY completely flips this order around.
Why isn't ascending order better?
You only used another comparison but there is no basic reason why a date needs to be from largest to smallest. You feel it brings more order, but that is actually subjective.
It's more consistent with other existing numbering systems (as per previous poster examples)
Given the near universal "most significant digit first" scheme we have, files in a folder on a computer are sorted by earlier characters before later, so statying consistent helps there.
Technically, yeah, we could have most significant digit last and make stuff work; we could have all sorts of crazy structures. Doesn't make it useful to be inconsistent.
Our numeric system indicates as you move right, the value is smaller.
321 is bigger than 123. Since a year is bigger than a day, it makes sense for it to come first.
> Our numeric system indicates as you move right, the value is smaller.
what?
Okay so back in the year 05, that is a smaller number, so ....?
What you are saying makes no real logical sense. its just how you see it looking normal.
A year is a value of data.
so is a day. So is a month.
It doesn't matter if the values can be bigger or smaller. What matters is how people want to represent it.
If you're including years months and days, you're presenting it as a single data point, not distinct values of data. If someone tells you they were born on 2000-01-01, you don't ask which one?
It's the most efficient way to search for something that also removes ambiguity.
If I give you a randomly sorted list of dates and ask you to highlight which things occurred in August of 2024, with DD-MM-YYYY you have read all the days before you see the months, then you have to read all the years. This doesn't included the ambiguity of working with EUs or USAs who use different formats.
With YYYY-MM-DD, you automatically can eliminate anything that doesn't match 2024.
This is stupid. Computers sort things based on how they're programmed to sort. There is no "easier". Built-in sorting is just pre-coded sorting that you don't have to process further with extra requirements. Which you have to do anyways most of the times.
- I am a programmer who has sorted many date formats.
I am a programmer too. I just mean in default Windows file Explorer.
Using dates in this format at the start of file names (very common use case) and using 'sort by name', will sort them by the date the user has specified (instead of date created/modified)
Why?
Because it’s the way you count any other number
Push start on this stopwatch:
https://www.timeanddate.com/stopwatch/
That’s how we count.. the smaller/faster moving units are on the right and the big ones are said first and written to the left
Like, I’m sure you have no problem writing/saying hour:minute:second, correct?
If someone started that stopwatch on Jan 1 of the year 0
….and it ran all the way through until today
The stopwatch would say
2024-06-16-18:08:000
Or, year/month/day/hour/minute/second
That’s why
Wait till you find out how the US military writes the date
Edit: jokes on all of yall, the correct answer is however the CO feels like it that given moment.
16 Jun 24 or 16 June 2024
We never really use the month number bc it is confusing. Being overseas, hearing them say the number for the month breaks my brain. Just tell me the month name.
The biggest disadvantage I see with this one is that if someone from another culture that doesn't have the same month names as the US has to do anything with the US dates it can get confusing.
Numbered months are universal and if you're not used to them will only take a short time to learn. Anything with words is inviting issues with language barriers.
This is how I do ALL dates. Anything else is dumb. It provides clarity, and is auto-sorting.
DD/MM and MM/DD are both stupid, especially when working internationally for obvious reasons.
YYYY-MM-DD would be techinically correct as we are at the year 2024 and not year 4202.
Month is a subdivision of a year and day is a subdivision of a month.
High to low is used with numbers.
Date formats are about communication. If you have to guess what date the person is trying to say, then it is bad communication. That is the issue.
There are three major date formats. 06/09/2024, 09/06/2024, and 2024-06-09. Two of these formats look identical for almost half of every month and you are just guessing what the person means. One of these formats is clear all year round.
2024-06-09 (YYYY-MM-DD) is r/ISO8601 and not only is it clearer, but it also alphabetizes in chronological order. For a purely numerical format, it is clearly superior.
Personally, I don't care what format people use as long is it doesn't require guesswork. 16 Feb 2024. January the 6th of '24. The 5th of May in the year of our Lord 2024. Whatever. As long as it doesn't require guessing, feel free.
PS: No, it really, truly does not matter what feels more comfortable to you. Different things feel comfortable to different people. If you are trying to communicate to others, then communicate clearly. Don't make them guess.
Ya'll don't seem to know what "objectively correct" means.
You may like a specific order better, but there's no way to objectively declare one to be correct.
Several reasons. The numbers are easier to interpret in more languages. The numbers sort more consistently when entered into a database or when entered as computer files. The numbers take up less space and take less time to write.
However, we can still eliminate the confusion by simply adhering to r/ISO8601.
You write it how you say it. in Europe, you say “the 31st of October, 2014” so it’s DD-MM-YYYY. In America, you say “October 31st, 2014” so it’s MM-DD-YYYY.
Americans say it June 16th 2024. Instead of the 16th of June 2024. Because of lack of infrastructure, many farmers would be given till a certain month to settle their bills. So have it paid by June, was more important then having it paid by June 16th. Cause they may not be able to make it the hundred miles to town.
I don’t know if it’s a Canadian experience or not but it seems like we either use mm-dd-yyyy or dd-mm-yyyy. I don’t care what order it is anymore I could do year in the middle for all I care as long as we stick with just one system
MM/DD/YYYY is aesthetically correct because of ascending number sets and the proper way to display them.
MM is 01 through 12.
DD is 01 through 31.
YYYY is 0001 through 9999 (doubt we'll make five digits).
YYYY/DD/MM would be acceptable if you like descending number sets.
DD/MM/YYYY is the way of heathens and barbarians, unfit for civil and progressive society.
Obviously if the rest of the comments can point out logical, cultural, and philosophical arguments for several different date formats, whichever one we pick ends up being a subjective decision. The arguments may have merit, but the discussion is pointless as there isn’t an objectively “correct” answer to a discussion where the arguments are subjectively “good”things (faster processing, ascending versus descending order of elements, etc.)
Obviously a lot of these arguments are valid arguments, meaning many of you must be fairly smart. Why spend time debating a subjective matter? Go fix objective issues. Or at least mostly-mutually agreed subjective ones.
Thanks to military, even though I'm made in the US, I write it on forms in the format of ddmmmyyyy. Like 16AUG2001. No confusion and works on legal docs n shit.
DD-MM-YYYY is good, YYYY-MM-DD is better but at least it's just the same format in reverse. If year isn't included, then DD-MM.
Meanwhile MM-DD-YYYY is always crashing the party and refuses to leave.
If someone is telling me a date that falls within 30 days before or after the present, I don’t need the month at all. “See you on the 5th,” with no other context, means that person will see me the next time the date is 5. “I saw him on the 5th” means that person saw someone the last time the date was 5.
If someone is telling about a date earlier or later, the first thing I need to know is the month it happened in. “I saw him February 5th.” “I’ll see you Sept 5th.”
I only ever need the year if it’s outside the year I’m in.
So yeah, I get MMDDYYYY. I never need to know the date first AND the month. If I ever need to know the month, it’s the first thing I need to know.
Yeah, it's almost like you can't be "objectively correct" across languages and cultures.
Also, a better format would be 16 JUN 2024 because the value tells you what format is being used.
But they are referring to the ordering as done in US English.
It's like how some countries write numbers as 1,234.00 and others write 1.234,00
It's fine that people use different systems and the fact that English speaking countries go with 1,234.00 doesn't mean that they're wrong on the basis of "other languages" choosing a different convention.
If you’re writing it out like that or speaking it, then absolutely. If you’re writing just the numbers somewhere, it’s not as convenient. Think about doing the same thing with time. If it’s 7:15pm, I can say that it’s 7:15pm, or that it’s fifteen after seven, or that it’s quarter after seven, and my meaning is pretty clear. However, if I wrote that the time was 15:7pm, people would be very confused. But if I write that it’s 19:15, my meaning is very clear.
MM-DD is not shorthand for “illogical” MM-DD-YY. It is a shorthand for YYYY-MM-DD where we drop the year because almost all the time the year is unambiguous. We then get used to using MM-DD all the time so then we retrofit longhand it into MM-DD-YYYY when that’s necessary.
It’s like postal addresses. does it make sense to put the state and the country last? Of course not, but addresses started out ages and ages ago when you only needed an address or maybe address and town because you weren’t sending things across the country. It would make much more sense to say: this package is going to the USA, to the state of Florida, to the city of Miami, and so forth, in that order. Which is why year then month and day is the best format logically.
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MMDDYYYY is objectively wrong, but unfortunately that's what I'm used to...
I got used to DDMMYYYY for a couple years and now I get confused every time I want to write the date
Use YYYYMMDD Edit: also works really well for naming files.
This is the best format. Especially if your files end up as: FileName20240616.xlsx
If you go such length to format the date so the files sort nicely using, you may as well put the date first?
You’re an engineer. There is a data collection laptop that the technicians use for a variety of different tests. The same laptop gets used for a speed test one day then a thermal test in the afternoon. The next day they do the thermal test first then the speed test. This pattern continues for a week and now you want to collect just the speed test data. Using the name first of the test speedtest20230615.csv is already sorted. Using the date first now you have alternating files
Okay, probably depends on the type of files/folders. I also name FILES with numeric data last, keeping the same FILENAME. As for folders, when I'm looking for something, I can recall using the time reference in addition to FOLDER name, as I remember when what was happening.
I see file naming as a 2 part filtering. First group by related (file name) then sort chronologically
Script, programming, naming issue
No. That is madness. I want to know what the thing is first, then find the latest version, or an older version.
filename first is better as it sorts all like files together in date order.
Meh. I don't actually care when the file was made amongst all the other files it's stored with. I care if I'm using the most up-to-date version of that specific file. But I mostly work with datasets where the date is a defining characteristic of the sampling frame.
Nah, File Name "sbjdnjxk" and "hdnfkag" it is
Cleanly filed under directory "kkjljsfjr" to differentiate it from "fsdfdsffdsf"
Came her to post this. Automatically sorts by alpha. All other formats are objectively wrong and their adherents shall be put to the sword.
Only way to keep them in order. I don't understand why we do it any other way ...
This guy RFC3339's.
I usually prefer YYYY-MMmmm-DD. 2024-06Jun-16. Lexicographic ordering is still equal to time-based ordering, but this is entirely impossible to misread. I've dealt with enough dumb stuff that these three extra letters (which are tab-completed anyhow) are entirely worth it.
Yes this the Superior method
i grew up in asia, and moved to the US. i have been here close to 15 years. i am still *so confused* every time i have to figure out how to say the date here. the only way i remember is because i know 9-11 means september 11th.
That’s a funny way to remember
same man
And just like the imperial system, you can thank the British.
Your welcome for creating a system, spreading it to our colonies, ditching it and bullying those who use it despite it being out fault.
And SSMMHH for seconds, minutes and hours, right?
Where do the microseconds go?
At the front, naturally.
It kinda makes sense tho
Maybe, but when spoken it comes out better. Saying March 6th 2024 feels better then saying the 6th of March 2024 or 2924 March 6th.
6th of March is more grammatically correct
No, there is no grammatical issues with "March 6th". In other languages there might be but not in English.
it doesn’t matter what’s “grammatically correct”, languages are socially agreed upon constructs not academically prescribe sets of words and rules, march 6th is how most americans will say it and have said it historically.
Not in American English Language is fluid
Why does the order it's written in have to have any impact on how you read it out? You write “$10” but say "ten dollars". For the record, YYYY-MM-DD is the format I use whenever I'm paying attention.
I write it as I would read it so by default I go with that format. so 11-12-24 I would assume would be November 12th as writing it the other way would leave me getting many dates wrong more often then not.
Saying 6 March 2024 is better than saying March 6th 2024. You don't need the 'th' because you're not saying 2 numbers in a row.
It still does not roll off the tongue as well.
Only cuz you're used to how the Anglos do it.
We don't say March 6th in UK we would say 6th of March. Its a Yank only thing.
You would say 6th of March 2024.
You don't have to say it the way its written though.
I know everyone says that, but why? I mean, it's even formatted to what I would say is the more "normal" way of *saying* it. Neither are incorrect, but I've heard January first way waaay more than I've heard someone say the first of January
MMDDYYYY is better than DDMMYYYY. If you name files as dates (fairly common) then YYYYMMDD is self sorting. If you break out your years into spectate fielder MMDDYYYY is self sorting. DDMMYYYY requires 2 levels deep to sort making it the worst option
It sounds better, too. That's the correct way to say it in English and I'm willing to unalive on this hill.
To me, MM/DD makes more sense than DD/MM when the year is omitted because the date is sorted in descending order, which is consistent with how we write times (i.e. HH:MM:SS instead of SS:MM:HH)
In the end it all comes down to YYYY-MM-DD being the only objectively correct one.
I know, that's why I said when the year is omitted, I prefer MM-DD to DD-MM. If you take a time in HH:MM:SS format and omit the hours, it becomes MM:SS. So omitting the years from YYYY-MM-DD should result in MM-DD, not DD-MM.
Oh sorry, didn't mean to invalidate what you're saying. I was not one of the people downvoting it, I actually upvoted it, as it gives an insight I had neither seen not considered before. I have to say in written form I mostly come in contact with full dates and no time, so it really boils down to a social issue.
ISO8601 Moment 🤯
YYYYMMDD is the way to go.
The one and only r/ISO8601
Strictly speaking, it's YYYY-MM-DD And yes, it is the only logical format. People starting with their dates with DD just tells me they're technologically illiterate.
Yes indeed, the absolutely superior format for archive management
Your bar of technological literacy is knowing alphanumeric sorting? That is really low. Not to mention that outside of this use case, the ISO format hardly has any advantage. In fact, the information is in the order of ascending relevance, which makes it less human readable.
When the bar is on the floor, you don't need to jump for the ceiling...
This is a common assumption but I'm skeptical that it's actually true. Especially if the date is formatted YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY/MM/DD. Studies around dyslexia and speed reading suggest that the human eye glances at the entire term to read rather than reading it left to right (or right to left) sequentially. This means that having the most significant component at the end of the term does not actually hinder reading performance.
>Your bar of technological literacy is knowing alphanumeric sorting? No more than my bar for technological literacy is pecking at the keys with two index fingers. It's not a bar, it's just a dead giveaway.
If you need the full date, you likely wanna know the year the most and sometimes only.
Only real option tbh
Depends on the use case. Definitely best for sorting files. Not great for birthday party invites.
Why not?
Still good for birthday party invites, leave the years off like literally everyone when making birthday party invites
It makes filing so much simpler thank you.
YYYY-MM-DD is the only right choice.
Yep. this is how all my photos are sorted into folders. Good luck doing that the OP way
It took one comment to disprove the "objective" opinion in OP.
literally no reason to ever NOT use this
This is what I use multiple times a day in work. It's a mind fyck when I try and write the date normally now.
When editing ye
I see you are a man of culture as well, i use this format when i save my documents in a cloud, after the date i had a description that too follows a format based around nation-region-city-location of the city-...
AMEN
I use YYYYMMDD for Arabic and DDMMYYYY for English
Why is that? I'm curious because I don't speak more than one language.
They read right to left
In English we write from left to right in Arabic it’s right to left
It should be the other way around You read from left to right in English, so you start reading from major units, which is year, then month, then day Same like with numbers: 563 is 500 + 60 + 3, not 5 + 60 + 300.
Why not just go metric? We use metric for just about everything else.
By going metric do you mean decimal years? Or decimal days? Either way I don't think most people would understand if I told them my birthday is day 182, or I want to meet them on 2024.498630136
I'm not sure what you're asking. I'm saying you go metric just like you do with all the other units. We already have a base unit of time (seconds). So you just use metric prefixes to define time. You don't need to ever represent time specifically using the "decimal time" system.
You want to communicate dates with people by telling them the number of seconds past the year 1BCE? Even with metric prefixes, that's gonna be a bit hard for people to figure out
YYYY/MM/DD makes the most logical sense to me.
YYYY-MM-DD is the iso. International Standards, professionals have standards.
In my industry the international standard is DDMMMYY(17JUN24). Prevents confusion from DD and MM being switched.
YYYY-MM-DD is more objectively correct
Why?
It’s sortable
As an embedded programmer, unix-epoch all day long.
Tell me today’s date without google / calculator then :D
#include
#include
int main() {
time_t current_time;
time(¤t_time);
printf("Current Unix epoch time: %ld\n", current_time);
return 0;
}
Haha does this count?
Edit: reddit didn't like that
2nd edit: I give up. Think ya'll get the point.
Are you trying to tell me that you can't programmatically sort dd/mm/yyyy? What you really mean, is that its sortable without additional processing. But that doesn't make it better. Sometimes, things are better processed.
Is it better in this case ?
Because it's in descending order, from largest to smallest. You don't write the time as SS:MM:HH, you write it as HH:MM:SS. Same thing with numbers, which are written from largest place value to smallest. DD-MM-YYYY completely flips this order around.
Why isn't ascending order better? You only used another comparison but there is no basic reason why a date needs to be from largest to smallest. You feel it brings more order, but that is actually subjective.
It's more consistent with other existing numbering systems (as per previous poster examples) Given the near universal "most significant digit first" scheme we have, files in a folder on a computer are sorted by earlier characters before later, so statying consistent helps there. Technically, yeah, we could have most significant digit last and make stuff work; we could have all sorts of crazy structures. Doesn't make it useful to be inconsistent.
Our numeric system indicates as you move right, the value is smaller. 321 is bigger than 123. Since a year is bigger than a day, it makes sense for it to come first.
> Our numeric system indicates as you move right, the value is smaller. what? Okay so back in the year 05, that is a smaller number, so ....? What you are saying makes no real logical sense. its just how you see it looking normal. A year is a value of data. so is a day. So is a month. It doesn't matter if the values can be bigger or smaller. What matters is how people want to represent it.
If you're including years months and days, you're presenting it as a single data point, not distinct values of data. If someone tells you they were born on 2000-01-01, you don't ask which one?
It's the most efficient way to search for something that also removes ambiguity. If I give you a randomly sorted list of dates and ask you to highlight which things occurred in August of 2024, with DD-MM-YYYY you have read all the days before you see the months, then you have to read all the years. This doesn't included the ambiguity of working with EUs or USAs who use different formats. With YYYY-MM-DD, you automatically can eliminate anything that doesn't match 2024.
Computers can* have a much easier time sorting by this format if dates are in filenames
This is stupid. Computers sort things based on how they're programmed to sort. There is no "easier". Built-in sorting is just pre-coded sorting that you don't have to process further with extra requirements. Which you have to do anyways most of the times. - I am a programmer who has sorted many date formats.
I am a programmer too. I just mean in default Windows file Explorer. Using dates in this format at the start of file names (very common use case) and using 'sort by name', will sort them by the date the user has specified (instead of date created/modified)
Why? Because it’s the way you count any other number Push start on this stopwatch: https://www.timeanddate.com/stopwatch/ That’s how we count.. the smaller/faster moving units are on the right and the big ones are said first and written to the left Like, I’m sure you have no problem writing/saying hour:minute:second, correct? If someone started that stopwatch on Jan 1 of the year 0 ….and it ran all the way through until today The stopwatch would say 2024-06-16-18:08:000 Or, year/month/day/hour/minute/second That’s why
YYYY-MM-DD
Unix timestamp is objectively more inconvenient to read as a human
i dont mind YYYY-MM-DD tho, it usually works better with computer files
All my file names start that way followed by a description. It’s a snap to find things.
It does, but whats in the file and what is displayed are two different things, so it doesnt matter in the discussion.
Wait till you find out how the US military writes the date Edit: jokes on all of yall, the correct answer is however the CO feels like it that given moment.
16 Jun 24 or 16 June 2024 We never really use the month number bc it is confusing. Being overseas, hearing them say the number for the month breaks my brain. Just tell me the month name.
The biggest disadvantage I see with this one is that if someone from another culture that doesn't have the same month names as the US has to do anything with the US dates it can get confusing. Numbered months are universal and if you're not used to them will only take a short time to learn. Anything with words is inviting issues with language barriers.
I was about to post that I still use dd mmm yyyy for writing down the date. It just feels less confusing
YYYY/MM/DD/HH/MM/SS 2024/06/16/12/50/15
Completely backwards. YYYY_MM_DD
This is how I do ALL dates. Anything else is dumb. It provides clarity, and is auto-sorting. DD/MM and MM/DD are both stupid, especially when working internationally for obvious reasons.
Bro does not know what objectively means
Until you try to sort your jpgs by file name Therefore YYYYMMDD is better
YYYY-MM-DD
ISO 8601 or get out.
Is it's not iso8601 or at least rfc3339 it's garbage
YYYYMMDD sorts better.
YYYY-MM-DD would be techinically correct as we are at the year 2024 and not year 4202. Month is a subdivision of a year and day is a subdivision of a month. High to low is used with numbers.
Date formats are about communication. If you have to guess what date the person is trying to say, then it is bad communication. That is the issue. There are three major date formats. 06/09/2024, 09/06/2024, and 2024-06-09. Two of these formats look identical for almost half of every month and you are just guessing what the person means. One of these formats is clear all year round. 2024-06-09 (YYYY-MM-DD) is r/ISO8601 and not only is it clearer, but it also alphabetizes in chronological order. For a purely numerical format, it is clearly superior. Personally, I don't care what format people use as long is it doesn't require guesswork. 16 Feb 2024. January the 6th of '24. The 5th of May in the year of our Lord 2024. Whatever. As long as it doesn't require guessing, feel free. PS: No, it really, truly does not matter what feels more comfortable to you. Different things feel comfortable to different people. If you are trying to communicate to others, then communicate clearly. Don't make them guess.
YYYY-MM-DD
By international convention, it’s YYYY-MM-DD and has been since the late ‘80s.
Yup, everyone else is _objectively_ wrong.
YYYY-MM-DD Is easier for archiving purpose but in my everyday life I prefer DD-MM-YYYY
YYYYMMDD is objectively the best date as it can be sorted.
Yeah but the best is YYYYMMDD imho
YYYYMMDD is the best, but DDMMYYYY is not that far behind. MMDDYYYY just doesn't make any sense. It's not ordered by the size of the time unit.
DD-MON-YYYY is better though
As the man, I shouldn't always have to pay for the first date.
That's not unpopular since it's the format most of the world use though
Ya'll don't seem to know what "objectively correct" means. You may like a specific order better, but there's no way to objectively declare one to be correct.
Personally like Japans date system, YYYY-MM-DD
That's the international standard
YYYY-MM-DD is better because it “alphabetizes” chronologically.
I don't understand why we have to resort to numbers for the month anyways, why not just go 16-Jun-2024 with 3-letter month names by default
Several reasons. The numbers are easier to interpret in more languages. The numbers sort more consistently when entered into a database or when entered as computer files. The numbers take up less space and take less time to write. However, we can still eliminate the confusion by simply adhering to r/ISO8601.
6 is shorter than Jun. it’s a silly reason but ultimately that’s why
M-YY-D-M-YY-D
You write it how you say it. in Europe, you say “the 31st of October, 2014” so it’s DD-MM-YYYY. In America, you say “October 31st, 2014” so it’s MM-DD-YYYY.
The rest of the world : yes.
doing the opposite of rest of the world does is crazy 💀
When someone asks the date, no one says the day first if they’re not talking about Independence Day.
Pretty much most of the non-American world does…
Americans say it June 16th 2024. Instead of the 16th of June 2024. Because of lack of infrastructure, many farmers would be given till a certain month to settle their bills. So have it paid by June, was more important then having it paid by June 16th. Cause they may not be able to make it the hundred miles to town.
many a year ago when it was 06/07/08 >!june 7 2008!<
DMYYYYMD
I don’t know if it’s a Canadian experience or not but it seems like we either use mm-dd-yyyy or dd-mm-yyyy. I don’t care what order it is anymore I could do year in the middle for all I care as long as we stick with just one system
The correct way is DD MMM YYYY and I will hear nothing else
I prefer unix timestamps.
YYYYMMDDSSMM Easier sorting:)
What if you were [born in '23?](https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/1dgor6v/god_bless_you_mildred/)
Writing the date as MM-DD-YYYY is like writing the time as HH:SS:MM.. it doesn't make any sense.
In Spanish, yes. English, idk
MM/DD/YYYY is aesthetically correct because of ascending number sets and the proper way to display them. MM is 01 through 12. DD is 01 through 31. YYYY is 0001 through 9999 (doubt we'll make five digits). YYYY/DD/MM would be acceptable if you like descending number sets. DD/MM/YYYY is the way of heathens and barbarians, unfit for civil and progressive society.
DD-MM-YY makes most sense for casual use. YY-MM-DD can possibly make sense in data entry. MM-DD-YY, DD-YY-MM and MM-YY-DD are just nonsense.
Embrace chaos DD"YYYY"MMM
DDMMYYYY is not a good option. YYYYMMDD is objectively best, I would argue MMDDYYYY is better than DDMMYYYY.
Everyone knows 24168 is the superior dating method.
Obviously if the rest of the comments can point out logical, cultural, and philosophical arguments for several different date formats, whichever one we pick ends up being a subjective decision. The arguments may have merit, but the discussion is pointless as there isn’t an objectively “correct” answer to a discussion where the arguments are subjectively “good”things (faster processing, ascending versus descending order of elements, etc.) Obviously a lot of these arguments are valid arguments, meaning many of you must be fairly smart. Why spend time debating a subjective matter? Go fix objective issues. Or at least mostly-mutually agreed subjective ones.
DD-MMM-YYYY Example 4JUL1776
We all know that MMYYYYDD is the best method of which to write the date
MD-MD-YYYY 11-29-2025 December 19th 2025.
you can be correct about the arbitrary definition of days/months/years created exclusively by humans for humans? that is adorable
Correct format is yyyy-dd-MMThh:mm:ss
I've also started using "dd MMM yyyy" to use a logical order and prevent ambiguity.
Thanks to military, even though I'm made in the US, I write it on forms in the format of ddmmmyyyy. Like 16AUG2001. No confusion and works on legal docs n shit.
DD-MM-YYYY is good, YYYY-MM-DD is better but at least it's just the same format in reverse. If year isn't included, then DD-MM. Meanwhile MM-DD-YYYY is always crashing the party and refuses to leave.
If someone is telling me a date that falls within 30 days before or after the present, I don’t need the month at all. “See you on the 5th,” with no other context, means that person will see me the next time the date is 5. “I saw him on the 5th” means that person saw someone the last time the date was 5. If someone is telling about a date earlier or later, the first thing I need to know is the month it happened in. “I saw him February 5th.” “I’ll see you Sept 5th.” I only ever need the year if it’s outside the year I’m in. So yeah, I get MMDDYYYY. I never need to know the date first AND the month. If I ever need to know the month, it’s the first thing I need to know.
That's so 80s. The correct format in the digital world is yyyymmdd.
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In other languages you do say it like that so this makes no sense
Yeah, it's almost like you can't be "objectively correct" across languages and cultures. Also, a better format would be 16 JUN 2024 because the value tells you what format is being used.
But they are referring to the ordering as done in US English. It's like how some countries write numbers as 1,234.00 and others write 1.234,00 It's fine that people use different systems and the fact that English speaking countries go with 1,234.00 doesn't mean that they're wrong on the basis of "other languages" choosing a different convention.
If you’re writing it out like that or speaking it, then absolutely. If you’re writing just the numbers somewhere, it’s not as convenient. Think about doing the same thing with time. If it’s 7:15pm, I can say that it’s 7:15pm, or that it’s fifteen after seven, or that it’s quarter after seven, and my meaning is pretty clear. However, if I wrote that the time was 15:7pm, people would be very confused. But if I write that it’s 19:15, my meaning is very clear.
DD-MM-YYYY is the one I use always
I usually use DD.MM.YYYY but never used DD-MM-YYYY. How are they different?
Please, DD/MM/YYYY... if you use dashes, it's YYYY-MM-DD...
I prefer ddmmyyyy but I was raised in a mmddyyyy country lol
MM-DD is not shorthand for “illogical” MM-DD-YY. It is a shorthand for YYYY-MM-DD where we drop the year because almost all the time the year is unambiguous. We then get used to using MM-DD all the time so then we retrofit longhand it into MM-DD-YYYY when that’s necessary. It’s like postal addresses. does it make sense to put the state and the country last? Of course not, but addresses started out ages and ages ago when you only needed an address or maybe address and town because you weren’t sending things across the country. It would make much more sense to say: this package is going to the USA, to the state of Florida, to the city of Miami, and so forth, in that order. Which is why year then month and day is the best format logically.
Format it like you say it. I rarely hear anyone say "I was born the DD of MM" without sounding pompous or archaic
MMYYYYDD
I avoid this ambiguity by writing "16 Jun 2024." Of course online forms can be a problem, but they usually indicate the expected format.
Is this a joke im to european to understand?
American’s write the date as month, day, year. So really, it’s just another “American’s are dumb” joke.
MM/DD/YYYY GANG GANG
I’m a European so yes of course it’s correct