Date convention
 

Guys:

When mentioning a date, let's all use the convention like 20-Aug-05 rather than 05-08-05. With people from all over the world coming to this site, that last reference could be August 5th or May 8th.

Thanks

Re: Date convention
 

Hi John,

Devil's advocate here. How about a YY-MM-DD convention?

For example: 45-05-08.

I utilize this format in my databases. It makes for easy sorting and is, I think, unambiguous.

Best regards,

Steve Sheflin

Re: Date convention
 

Hi,

This might seem like pure trivia, but I asure you it is not. The EU has - for good reasons - decided to use the YY-MM-DD format. If you tabulate data (word or exel spread-sheet) and part of it is the date, you might want to sort cronologically. Unless the above format is used you'll get complete rubbish, like 05 SEP 1944 after 04 FEB 2005. So lets stick to the computer logic format.
bregds
SES

Re: Date convention
 

The points about using a format to suit a database are well taken (as I eventually learned when working on a book that was stored as about 250 files named for dates!)

However, when talking about the Luftwaffe, I think there's an argument for using the format they normally used: DD MM YY. We Europeans understand it at least!

Re: Date convention
 

There are several date conventions that are valid depending where you live and work. It is really a hassle to switch from one convention that you use most of the time to another, just for a single specific purpose (i.e. TOCH) and it leads to errors. What I suggest is use whatever convention you are familiar with, except insert three charater alpha abreviations for the month, that pretty well eliminates the confusion factor.

As for data bases and spreadsheets, I personally use three fields for dates, this lets me insert multiple day, day-night, seasons, early, late, or months without days. Otherwise programs tend to convert dates to data sets somewhat innaccurately.

Best regards

Artie Bob

Re: Date convention
 

Oh, all the mess is done by Americans with their reversed month/day system. Anybody else uses it?

Re: Date convention
 

I think what John says makes sense, there is no ambiguity with 20-Aug-05, everyone understands it.

The format you then wish to use on your own database is entirely up to you, ie DD-MM-YY for Europeans and MM-DD-YY for Americans, which ever you find easier to use.

Regards

Andy Fletcher

Re: Date convention
 

I agree that numerical dates can cause confusion. Here in the UK '9/11/2001' means 9th November...

Using abbreviations for months (such as Aug) prevents that, but it is language-specific, which numbers are not.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

Re: Date convention
 

I use the date format suggested by John with my db files. No problems whatsoever sorting. That may depend upon the date setting one uses in Windows, but Access handles it just fine.

Re: Date convention
 

Like Jim P I have never had any problem sorting dates with access provided they are entered as dates (the data field set to date) and not entered as plain text which does create problems when filtering and sorting.

Also when the date is entered as a date (and not a text string) then you can adjust the date format to whatever you like and it automatically updates the format of every date in the field.

Regards

Andy Fletcher