How do you write the date?

[MisterSG1]

For instance, if you're asked to sign something and date it, what do you write down.

I'd write down today as "Jan 23/2017"

I notice that the nonsensical DD-MM-YY format is used by many especially around here. Which I thought makes no sense.

[hotdogPi]

1/23/17

[webny99]

You BOTH got the year wrong, lol 

In a hurry: 1/23/2018
For any formal purpose: January 23, 2018
In the UK they put the day first: 23/1/2018

[CtrlAltDel]

As someone who speaks both French and English and who often writes dates in both, I always spell out the month as a way to avoid ambiguity. So, today would be either January 23, 2018 or le 23 janvier 2018. If there's dates I'll need to sort, I'll write them in YYYY-MM-DD format, or if I'm feeling whimsical, the Julian date.

I notice that the nonsensical DD-MM-YY format is used by many especially around here. Which I thought makes no sense.

I'm not sure why you think the D-M-Y format makes no sense. Even if it's relatively unfamiliar to you, certainly it seems reasonable to write a date from the smallest units to the largest.

[MisterSG1]

As someone who speaks both French and English and who often writes dates in both, I always spell out the month as a way to avoid ambiguity. So, today would be either January 23, 2018 or le 23 janvier 2018. If there's dates I'll need to sort, I'll write them in YYYY-MM-DD format, or if I'm feeling whimsical, the Julian date.

I notice that the nonsensical DD-MM-YY format is used by many especially around here. Which I thought makes no sense.

I'm not sure why you think the D-M-Y format makes no sense. Even if it's relatively unfamiliar to you, certainly it seems reasonable to write a date from the smallest units to the largest.

The problem with it is cultural, yes, the logic you use from smallest to largest is similar to those who adamantly see the metric system as being superior in every way to the imperial system.

D/M/Y makes sense if like in your French example, that's how the date is written formally and spoken out loud. For instance, people around here would call it January 23rd, not the Twenty-Third of January. It may be common in practically every other English speaking country to think of today as 23 January, but that's not how we culturally refer to the date in North America.

[SignGeek101]

Always "23 January 2018" - written and said.   

I know I'm in the minority but here goes. To me, it makes the most sense to state the time frames in order: 23 (the day), then the month (January), and then the year (2018).  It doesn't make sense to write "8:49 PM" (or 20:49 which I also prefer) as "49:8 PM" does it? 

For short forms, unless requested otherwise, always YYYY/MM/DD (which I believe is the international standard and makes the most sense).

EDIT: not the standard, but very close: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

I NEVER use MM/DD/YYYY (I know you Americans love this format) because of the reasons stated above.

DD/MM/YYYY is more common in Canada (and other non-US countries) but I still don't really like it simply because it can often be confused with MM/DD/YYYY.

[Max Rockatansky]

By carrier pigeon, I've yet to get a response in kind....


But in all seriousness two ways:

Normally:  01/012018
At work:  01/JAN/2018

[MisterSG1]

DD/MM/YYYY is more common in Canada (and other non-US countries) but I still don't really like it simply because it can often be confused with MM/DD/YYYY.

I'd really like to know why you think that. I've always known M-D-Y, as it is how I learned to say the date. I was also familiar with Y-M-D, as it does keep the month before day format intact. Tell me this, how long have your ancestors been in this country.

[adventurernumber1]

I would pretty much either say January 23, 2018 or 1/23/18 or 1/23/2018.

I don't think I would ever write it any other way, but that's just me. 

[7/8]

ISO 8601 (ex: 2018-01-23). If you see the year first (especially with four digits), you know the next two are the month and day respectively. 01-02-2018 is too ambigous (Jan 2nd or Feb 1st?).

Canada is terrible with date formats. All three formats are commonly in use and as you can imagine, it sucks.

[Rothman]

Although I write 1/23/18 and type 23 JAN 2018, I love the Russian notation:

23/I - 18 y.   

The "y" would actually be a lower case Cyrillic "g," but I don't have Cyrillic on my phone.

[MisterSG1]

ISO 8601 (ex: 2018-01-23). If you see the year first (especially with four digits), you know the next two are the month and day respectively. 01-02-2018 is too ambigous (Jan 2nd or Feb 1st?).

Canada is terrible with date formats. All three formats are commonly in use and as you can imagine, it sucks.

ISO 8601 may be the most logical, especially with writing it purely in numbers, as it keeps month before day, and largest to smallest increments exist. (Much of the rest of the world uses D-M-Y), and it may be official government policy doesn't mean it's in everyday use. For instance, saying a Y-M-D format would be incredibly awkward "Today is 2018, January the twenty-third" .

Unless all 4 Year digits are there, especially with the current part of the century we are in, ambiguities are still possible. 12-1-18 could be January 12, 2018 or January 18, 2012 depending on what date format you expect.

[jakeroot]

I grew up in a military household, so "23 Jan 2018". Using just numbers, I used to write 1/23/18, but I've transitioned to 23.1.2018. Day.month.year just makes too much damn sense (I prefer full stops to hyphens for personal reasons).

At work, I write "23rd Jan 2018" on my paperwork, which is ostensibly British. But it's just military style + ordinal indicator. I only use the ordinal indicator on my work paperwork because everyone else does.

[Big John]

I use dashes:  1-23-18

[7/8]

ISO 8601 (ex: 2018-01-23). If you see the year first (especially with four digits), you know the next two are the month and day respectively. 01-02-2018 is too ambigous (Jan 2nd or Feb 1st?).

Canada is terrible with date formats. All three formats are commonly in use and as you can imagine, it sucks.

ISO 8601 may be the most logical, especially with writing it purely in numbers, as it keeps month before day, and largest to smallest increments exist. (Much of the rest of the world uses D-M-Y), and it may be official government policy doesn't mean it's in everyday use. For instance, saying a Y-M-D format would be incredibly awkward "Today is 2018, January the twenty-third" .

Unless all 4 Year digits are there, especially with the current part of the century we are in, ambiguities are still possible. 12-1-18 could be January 12, 2018 or January 18, 2012 depending on what date format you expect.

I don't think it matters much if the order is written differently than it's said. I would still read all three formats as January 23rd, 2018. But ISO 8601 is the least ambiguous and it sorts file/folder names in chronological order. I agree that YY-MM-DD is terrible; the year HAS to be four digits to keep it unambiguous.

As a side note, it's somewhat funny that americans write 07/04, but call it the fourth of July.

[webny99]

As a side note, it's somewhat funny that americans write 07/04, but call it the fourth of July.

In my experience, both fourth of July and July fourth are used about equally. Never July the fourth though. That's unbelievably ugly sounding 

[formulanone]

1 moon with 23 suns during 2017 earth-revolutions/sun of the mythical sky-god-kid era.

[Otto Yamamoto]

23.1.2018 in short form, 23rd January 2018 in long form, and reversed: 2018-01-23 for file sorting.

P00I

[DaBigE]

In report writing: January D, YYYY
On the rare check I write: MM-DD-YYYY (or the report writing way - depends on how lazy/in a hurry I am)
For any filename or folder: YYYYMMDD or YYYY.MM.DD

As a side note, it's somewhat funny that americans write 07/04, but call it the fourth of July.

It's probably the most common for Independence Day, but I've head that format said for just about any date that is spoken.

[SignGeek101]

DD/MM/YYYY is more common in Canada (and other non-US countries) but I still don't really like it simply because it can often be confused with MM/DD/YYYY.

I'd really like to know why you think that. I've always known M-D-Y, as it is how I learned to say the date. I was also familiar with Y-M-D, as it does keep the month before day format intact. Tell me this, how long have your ancestors been in this country.

I learned the date as "January 23 2018" as well, but have since switched (about six or so years ago) just because of personal preference, nothing to do with my family or anything (we're not new immigrants).

I think I've seen DD/MM/YYYY more (I could be wrong, my memory sometimes betrays me), but of course it depends on who is printing the date (grocery stores versus the bank or the government). I checked a few (about half a dozen) receipts I have just now, and most of them were either MM/DD/YYYY or YYYY/MM/DD but I also saw DD-MMM-YYYY and YY/MM/DD.

[MisterSG1]

ISO 8601 (ex: 2018-01-23). If you see the year first (especially with four digits), you know the next two are the month and day respectively. 01-02-2018 is too ambigous (Jan 2nd or Feb 1st?).

Canada is terrible with date formats. All three formats are commonly in use and as you can imagine, it sucks.

ISO 8601 may be the most logical, especially with writing it purely in numbers, as it keeps month before day, and largest to smallest increments exist. (Much of the rest of the world uses D-M-Y), and it may be official government policy doesn't mean it's in everyday use. For instance, saying a Y-M-D format would be incredibly awkward "Today is 2018, January the twenty-third" .

Unless all 4 Year digits are there, especially with the current part of the century we are in, ambiguities are still possible. 12-1-18 could be January 12, 2018 or January 18, 2012 depending on what date format you expect.

I don't think it matters much if the order is written differently than it's said. I would still read all three formats as January 23rd, 2018. But ISO 8601 is the least ambiguous and it sorts file/folder names in chronological order. I agree that YY-MM-DD is terrible; the year HAS to be four digits to keep it unambiguous.

As a side note, it's somewhat funny that americans write 07/04, but call it the fourth of July.

You know, I figured I'd look at some historical documents, as for the Fourth of July. The actual Declaration of Independence has a date of "July 4, 1776" .

The original BNA Act, which essentially established Canada as a unified dominion of British territories is dated "29th March 1867"

I'm not sure when the change occurred, but bills today that are heard in Ottawa acknowledge dates in the American format "MONTH DAY , YEAR"




As for how we say the date, you are right, however it should be understood that writing the date in numbers in MM/DD/YYYY came from the logic in that's how we normally say the date, so that would be a quick way to write it. Hence to avoid confusion, I always write the date with the first three letters of the month followed by day and year. This is more logical and prevents ambiguity.

[index]

On paper when the date format is not specified I usually write the date like so:

Jan/January 23 2018/18 (slashes meaning i'll use either of the two)

[02 Park Ave]

23 JAN a.D. 2018

[US 89]

1/23/17

23 JAN a.D. 2017

Nope.

I use month/day/year, using numbers. I almost never actually spell the date out, but on the rare occasion that I do, I’ll write Month Day, Year.

[Hurricane Rex]

1/23/18

I write it the same way however when I was in elementary school I wrote it as 1-23-18