Comments on: People, mind your dates… plz? http://blog.nkadesign.com/2007/people-mind-your-dates-plz/ Just another programming weblog Thu, 28 Aug 2008 07:46:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Alex Dybenko http://blog.nkadesign.com/2007/people-mind-your-dates-plz/#comment-8956 Alex Dybenko Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:25:06 +0000 http://blog.nkadesign.com/2007/people-mind-your-dates-plz/#comment-8956 <p>Hi, i think best aproach is one Access has. User can setup the date format he likes in control panel and Access uses it to enter and display dates, if you set format to short date. I follow this in my applications and it works fine for different contries</p> Hi, i think best aproach is one Access has. User can setup the date format he likes in control panel and Access uses it to enter and display dates, if you set format to short date. I follow this in my applications and it works fine for different contries

]]> By: Renaud http://blog.nkadesign.com/2007/people-mind-your-dates-plz/#comment-8954 Renaud Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:21:10 +0000 http://blog.nkadesign.com/2007/people-mind-your-dates-plz/#comment-8954 <p>Hi Tony, thanks for dropping by. Sorry to have bundled the USA with Canada in this, but from what you say, the situation is even worse in Canada with multiple formats being in use.</p> <p>You are right that ISO8601 is unambiguous. I would be glad if it were more widely adopted and everyone knew about it, but it's not the case unfortunately and I doubt most people would be aware of the order in which the date is specified, which makes it ambiguous to read without that knowledge.</p> <p>Whatever your pick, the point is to make dates as unambiguous and readable as possible so order doesn't matter.</p> <p>For website in multiple language where the user's locale locale is not detected to print the date in the format they expect, then the ISO YYYY/MM/DD is preferable.</p> <p>In English websites, documentation, etc read by an international audience, I still think that 25MAY2008 or MAY25,2008 or 2008/MAY/25 or any other variation with the year in full and the month in letters is the only way to make it absolutely unambiguous to everyone.</p> Hi Tony, thanks for dropping by. Sorry to have bundled the USA with Canada in this, but from what you say, the situation is even worse in Canada with multiple formats being in use.

You are right that ISO8601 is unambiguous. I would be glad if it were more widely adopted and everyone knew about it, but it’s not the case unfortunately and I doubt most people would be aware of the order in which the date is specified, which makes it ambiguous to read without that knowledge.

Whatever your pick, the point is to make dates as unambiguous and readable as possible so order doesn’t matter.

For website in multiple language where the user’s locale locale is not detected to print the date in the format they expect, then the ISO YYYY/MM/DD is preferable.

In English websites, documentation, etc read by an international audience, I still think that 25MAY2008 or MAY25,2008 or 2008/MAY/25 or any other variation with the year in full and the month in letters is the only way to make it absolutely unambiguous to everyone.

]]> By: Tony Toews http://blog.nkadesign.com/2007/people-mind-your-dates-plz/#comment-8953 Tony Toews Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:23:26 +0000 http://blog.nkadesign.com/2007/people-mind-your-dates-plz/#comment-8953 <p>Whoops . dd/mm.yy should be dd/mm/yy.</p> Whoops . dd/mm.yy should be dd/mm/yy.

]]> By: Tony Toews http://blog.nkadesign.com/2007/people-mind-your-dates-plz/#comment-8952 Tony Toews Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:49:45 +0000 http://blog.nkadesign.com/2007/people-mind-your-dates-plz/#comment-8952 <p>1) Some Canadians including some government offices use dd/mm.yy format. So your comment about North America is incorrect.</p> <p>2) Will all due respect I strenuously disagree with 05MAY2006 or similar as the date format. The ISO standard is yyyy-mm-dd. That date format is unambiguous.</p> <p>Otherwise your blog postings look quite interesting. I'll be following your blog.</p> <p>Tony Toews, MS Access MVP</p> 1) Some Canadians including some government offices use dd/mm.yy format. So your comment about North America is incorrect.

2) Will all due respect I strenuously disagree with 05MAY2006 or similar as the date format. The ISO standard is yyyy-mm-dd. That date format is unambiguous.

Otherwise your blog postings look quite interesting. I’ll be following your blog.

Tony Toews, MS Access MVP

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