Xref: utzoo comp.text:2312 comp.std.internat:381
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!hc!lanl!jhf
From: jhf@lanl.gov (Joseph Fasel)
Newsgroups: comp.text,comp.std.internat
Subject: Re: Dates (was American vs. European numerical usage)
Summary: ISO standard
Message-ID: <2866@lanl.gov>
Date: 25 Aug 88 14:19:15 GMT
References: <3900@enea.se> <1785@water.waterloo.edu> <183@dcs.UUCP>
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lines: 63

In article <183@dcs.UUCP>, wnp@dcs.UUCP (Wolf N. Paul) writes:
> In article <1785@water.waterloo.edu> ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (Lee Dickey) writes:
> >In article <3900@enea.se> sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) writes:
> > ... [some good stuff deleted ] ...
> >>                              ... So in Sweden we write the
> >>date of today when we follow modern use as 88-08-21 or 880821.
> >
> >This pleases me.  I would like to see things advance one step further,
> >so that a date like this   yyyy-mm-dd   becomes common usage.
> >I shudder to think of the confusion that will arise in about 13 years
> >if we do not adopt such a convention.
> 
> Actually, (YY)YY-MM-DD, or rather (YY)YY MM DD, is the way school children in
> Germany and Austria are taught nowadays to write the date. I believe it is at
> least a DIN and OeNORM standard (German & Austrian), and may even be an ISO/SI 
> standard. Seems that Europe is ahead of North America in that respect.

It is in fact an ISO standard: ISO/R 2014-1971. Here is an excerpt:

3.  RULES FOR WRITING CALENDAR DATES

3.1  Sequence

	An all-numeric date should be written in the following order:

		year-month-day

3.2  Characters

	An all-numeric date should be expressed exclusively in arabic
	numerals, i.e. by using only the decimal digits 0,1,2,...,9 and,
	if required, the hyphen (see clause 3.4).

3.3  Elements

	An all-numeric date should consist of

		- four digits to represent the year;

		  NOTE. - Two digits may be used where no possible confusion
		  can arise from the omission of the century: however,
		  four digits should be applied especially in correspondence
		  and for documentation purposes to indicate clearly that
		  the descending order is used.

		- two digits to represent the month;

		- two digits to represent the day.

3.4  Separator

	Where a separator is used in an all-numeric date, only a hyphen
	or a space should be used between year and month, and between month
	and day.

3.5  Examples

	The 1st July 1971 should be written in one of the following ways:

	(a)  19710701

	(b)  1971-07-01

	(c)  1971 97 01