Editing 1179: ISO 8601
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When abbreviating the date into numerical form, {{w|Date format by country|various areas of the world}} tend to list the year, month, and day in different orders (as well as with different delimiting symbols), which can cause confusion particularly when the day value is 12 or lower allowing it to be easily interpreted as the month and vice versa. As a {{w|public service announcement}}, this comic states that there is in fact one international standard for writing numeric dates, set by the {{w|International Organization for Standardization}} in its {{w|ISO 8601}} standard: YYYY-MM-DD. | When abbreviating the date into numerical form, {{w|Date format by country|various areas of the world}} tend to list the year, month, and day in different orders (as well as with different delimiting symbols), which can cause confusion particularly when the day value is 12 or lower allowing it to be easily interpreted as the month and vice versa. As a {{w|public service announcement}}, this comic states that there is in fact one international standard for writing numeric dates, set by the {{w|International Organization for Standardization}} in its {{w|ISO 8601}} standard: YYYY-MM-DD. | ||
− | The comic then proceeds to list several discouraged ways of writing out the date of the comic's publication, as they do not match the standard. It begins with several commonly used ones in countries around the world but then begins to list increasingly uncommon ways, ranging from strange (Roman numerals) to quirky (binary, Unix time) to essentially impossible (painting the numbers onto a black cat). | + | The comic then proceeds to list several discouraged ways of writing out the date of the comic's publication, as they do not match the standard. It begins with several commonly used ones in countries around the world, but then begins to list increasingly uncommon ways, ranging from strange (Roman numerals) to quirky (binary, Unix time) to essentially impossible (painting the numbers onto a black cat). |
− | The title text provides a perfect example of the kind of ambiguity that can arise when non-standard formats are used. The ISO standard was in fact published on 1988-06-05 and amended on 2004-12-01. This is mentioned in the title text in MM/DD/YY format; however, there is no way to naturally figure this out, particularly with the second date. | + | The title text provides a perfect example of the kind of ambiguity that can arise when non-standard formats are used. The ISO standard was in fact published on 1988-06-05 and amended on 2004-12-01. This is mentioned in the title text in MM/DD/YY format; however, there is no way to naturally figure this out, particularly with the second date. With the year truncated to two digits and all three numbers at 12 or lower, the date referring to December 1, 2004 may well be interpreted as 12 January 2004, or as 2012-01-04. |
− | + | Date formats was again the subject in [[1340: Unique Date]]. | |
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− | Date formats | ||
The other mentioned formats are: | The other mentioned formats are: | ||
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| 02/27/2013 | | 02/27/2013 | ||
− | | MM/DD/YYYY, used mostly in the | + | | MM/DD/YYYY, used mostly in the United States. |
|- | |- | ||
| 02/27/13 | | 02/27/13 | ||
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| 27/02/2013 | | 27/02/2013 | ||
− | | DD/MM/YYYY, used variously in South America, Canada ({{w|Date_and_time_notation_in_Canada|officially uses ISO 8601}}), Australia, New Zealand and | + | | DD/MM/YYYY, used variously in South America, Canada ({{w|Date_and_time_notation_in_Canada|officially uses ISO 8601}}), Australia, New Zealand and Europe. |
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| 27/02/13 | | 27/02/13 | ||
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| 2013.02.27 | | 2013.02.27 | ||
− | | YYYY.MM.DD, used in Japan | + | | YYYY.MM.DD, used in Japan. Same as ISO 8601 except with different punctuation. |
|- | |- | ||
| 27.02.13 | | 27.02.13 | ||
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| 2013. II. 27. | | 2013. II. 27. | ||
− | | YYYY. MM. DD., with month as {{w|Roman numerals}}, used in Hungary | + | | YYYY. MM. DD., with month as {{w|Roman numerals}}, used in Hungary. |
|- | |- | ||
| <sup>27</sup>⁄<sub>2</sub>-13 | | <sup>27</sup>⁄<sub>2</sub>-13 | ||
− | | <sup>D</sup>⁄<sub>M</sub>-YY, traditional format in | + | | <sup>D</sup>⁄<sub>M</sub>-YY, traditional format in Sweden |
|- | |- | ||
| 2013.158904109 | | 2013.158904109 | ||
− | | Year and decimal fraction of year. 0.158904109 is a decimal approximation of 58/365, with February 27 being the 58th day of the year. | + | | Year and decimal fraction of year. 0.158904109 is a decimal approximation of 58/365, with February 27 being the 58th day of the year. Allowed in ISO 8601 as it is not ambiguous; presumably easier to read for computers/programs but difficult for humans. |
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| MMXIII-II-XXVII | | MMXIII-II-XXVII | ||
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| ((3+3)×(111+1)-1)×3/3-1/3<sup>3</sup> | | ((3+3)×(111+1)-1)×3/3-1/3<sup>3</sup> | ||
− | | A useless format where the numbers 2013, 2, and 27 written as needlessly long arithmetic expressions using just the digits 1 and 3. For additional confusion, the values are delimited by slashes, enabling confusion with the fraction bar. (If evaluated literally, the entire expression evaluates to 670.963, or 671 minus | + | | A useless format where the numbers 2013, 2, and 27 written as needlessly long arithmetic expressions using just the digits 1 and 3. For additional confusion, the values are delimited by slashes, enabling confusion with the fraction bar. (If evaluated literally, the entire expression evaluates to 670.963, or 671 minus 1 divided by 27.) |
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| <span style="position:absolute;"> 2</span><span style="position:absolute;"> 27</span>2013 | | <span style="position:absolute;"> 2</span><span style="position:absolute;"> 27</span>2013 | ||
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| 02/27/20/13 | | 02/27/20/13 | ||
− | | MM/DD/CC/YY, where CC stands for century. This format is never used. | + | | MM/DD/CC/YY, where CC stands for century. This format is never used. Note that while months and days count starting from 1, centuries and years in this format count from 0 for extra confusion. But the CC value is widely used on many operating systems to distinguish between the 20th and 21st century, represented by the values "19" and "20" because 1950 belongs to the 20th century. |
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− | | < | + | | <sup><sup>2</sup></sup>0<sub><sub>5</sub></sub><sup><sup>3</sup></sup>1<sup><sup>1</sup></sup>2<sub><sub>67</sub></sub><sup><sup>4</sup></sup>37<sub><sub>8</sub></sub> |
− | | An obfuscated format where the small numbers indicate the positions where the | + | | An obfuscated format where the small numbers indicate the positions where the large digits should be placed. In this reading, 0 is used at positions 2 and 5, 1 is used on position 3, etc.; the result being 20130227 |
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| [A hissing black cat with "2-27-13" painted on it] | | [A hissing black cat with "2-27-13" painted on it] | ||
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:*MMXIII-II-XXVII | :*MMXIII-II-XXVII | ||
:*MMXIII <sup>LVII</sup>⁄<sub>CCCLXV</sub> | :*MMXIII <sup>LVII</sup>⁄<sub>CCCLXV</sub> | ||
− | :*1330300800 | + | :*1330300800 [This is the UNIX time for *2012*-02-27, Randall.] |
:*((3+3)×(111+1)-1)×3/3-1/3<sup>3</sup> | :*((3+3)×(111+1)-1)×3/3-1/3<sup>3</sup> | ||
:*<span style="position:absolute;"> 2</span><span style="position:absolute;"> 27</span>2013 [the numbers 2013, 02, and 27 written overlapping each other] | :*<span style="position:absolute;"> 2</span><span style="position:absolute;"> 27</span>2013 [the numbers 2013, 02, and 27 written overlapping each other] | ||
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
[[Category:Math]] | [[Category:Math]] | ||
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