YMDnotYDM20203 0 Report post Posted March 2, 2020 Why? As I saw 3 March 2020 written as 2020/3/3, I think that you guys write in the yy/dd/mm date format? Why? Is there any history behind this? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
calibre2001 28 Report post Posted March 3, 2020 Should be yyyy/mm/dd. This is historical convention from the past. Even Chinese addresses are in reversed order Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeppa 107 Report post Posted March 3, 2020 There are various date formats, and the yyyy/mm/dd format was introduced as an international standard to make things clearer. I usually use that. If you don't mention the year, in the USA, it's common to write mm/dd, but really almost only in the USA. In the UK (where I am), it was more common to use dd/mm. Thus 4.7 could mean the fourth of July in UK usage but the seventh of April in the USA. It's only if the yyyy comes first that it becomes a bit clearer. I translate from German to English and I often write the month out in full so no one is confused. On top of everything else, in the UK we usually say the third of July, whereas in the USA they usually say July third. But the fourth of July is an exception! I like your 3.3 example. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Lu 3,171 Report post Posted March 3, 2020 11 hours ago, YMDnotYDM20203 said: I think that you guys write in the yy/dd/mm date format? Who are 'you guys' in this question? I always write out the month, to avoid international confusion. Here in the Netherlands dd/mm/yyyy is normal (or sometimes dd/mm/yy). 2 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
imron 5,242 Report post Posted March 3, 2020 1 hour ago, Zeppa said: If you don't mention the year, in the USA, it's common to write dd/mm I think you have this the wrong way around. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeppa 107 Report post Posted March 3, 2020 Thanks, corrected. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shelley 1,860 Report post Posted March 3, 2020 Its written like because it goes from big to small, thats why addresses are written like that too. Makes sense really, if you do it the conventional way the postman has to start at the bottom of the address to start the sorting process and as the letter gets near it destination the top of the address is read. The Chinese way is far more sensible in my opinion, Country first, then City, district, street, house no, apartment no. This also known as big-endian, there also medium and little-endian formats. (see the wikipedia link) IIRC the USA is the only place in the world that write it mm/dd/yyyy, many people wonder what happened on the 9th of November 2001 when they hear people talking of 9/11. This is interesting and confirms that the USA is alone in it choice of format. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_format_by_country 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jim 804 Report post Posted March 3, 2020 Just stick to the sexagenary cycle, then everyone's equally confused. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikelove 530 Report post Posted March 3, 2020 YYYYMMDD order (padding day and month with zeroes, if necessary) is usually best in information processing contexts, since it ensures that a “dumb” string sort algorithm will nevertheless sort your dates correctly. 4 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
edelweis 832 Report post Posted March 3, 2020 19 hours ago, YMDnotYDM20203 said: I saw 3 March 2020 written as 2020/3/3, I think that you guys write in the yy/dd/mm date format? 3 = 3 whether it means March or 3rd day of the month. I don't know how you came to the conclusion that 2020/3/3 means YDM and not YMD... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
imron 5,242 Report post Posted March 3, 2020 6 hours ago, mikelove said: is usually best in information processing contexts Yep. Can confirm YYYYMMDD is the preferred format for programmers and IT people in general. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dawei3 323 Report post Posted March 3, 2020 10 hours ago, Shelley said: Its written like because it goes from big to small, thats why addresses are written like that too. To add to Shelley's comment, bigger to smaller is the common sentence construction in Chinese. When arranging a time to talk with someone, it's the day > time of day > time. 让我们周六早上八点钟聊天。(Let's talk on Saturday morning at 8。 Not "let's talk at 8 on Saturday morning" nor "let's talk at 8 in the morning on Saturday.) Others on the blog can mention if they know exceptions to this big/small approach. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flickserve 1,080 Report post Posted March 4, 2020 Who are " you guys"?? For myself, photo and video folders in my computer are grouped yyyymmdd But anything else is ddmmyyyy. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Shelley 1,860 Report post Posted March 4, 2020 3 hours ago, Flickserve said: For myself, photo and video folders in my computer are grouped yyyymmdd So are mine, but I didn't choose this format. It seems to be a default format ....due to the fact I have a Huawei phone and it uses the Chinese big-endian format? So any chinese device will do this as default? Discuss Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites