I have never understood dating systems.

[JoanneB]

2003-11-09: the ISO 8601 international standard orders the components of a date like this, and additionally uses leading zeros, for example, 0813-03-01, to be easily read and sorted by computers.

All I can tell,
Axélle

I was waiting for this one!  I was floored when it first came out. So on top of standard date parsing routines us computer geeks had to roll yet another one!

BTW, being from the USA and a ham radio geek since I was a kid I've always used the US military / Euro system. I also say zed for 'Z', even put the little slash in it 

These days of total ambiguity of dates my preference is 6 Jan 2012. I like how the text is bracketed by numbers. It's mostly an esthetic thing for me, but I find it easier to parse than Jan 6 2012. I never use 6/1/2012 or 1/6/2012  or the DREADED 6/1/12 or 1/6/12 or 12/1/6.  One more year to go to end that "is that 12 the year, month, or day?"

[espo]

awe, I thought I was going to get tips on dating.

[Vanora]

A clearer way to think about how we do it in America is to think of setting up a meeting ahead of time in the given year.  In America we would look at a calender to start and would want to know what month to look at first.  So, "Let's meet in April on the 5th."   Then you would open the calendar to April and find the 5th. There is no right or wrong but there is some logic to how we do it.

[xander]

what gets me is that we still refer to 9/11 as "9/11". We should call it "11/9"

[Berserk]

While the dating system in the US is silly...I also think the way North Americans in general tell time is incredibly illogical (except for Québec, who are apparently the only ones, other than the Canadian and American militaries, able to tell the time correctly on the entire continent).

Just think, such pointless phrases as "1 in the morning" or "1 in the afternoon" would fall into disuse once people realised that there are 24 hours in a day and all you need to do is keep counting, instead of restarting after the twelfth hour. Whoever decided that nations should be run on this system should be smacked across the back of the head, I tell you!

I also think the US should get with the Celsius programme. And should stop making up their own spellings for things.

[tekla]

It's just the writing convention following the speaking convention.  American English will always put the month before the day when speaking, writing just follows that.

What I want to know is why no one outside of airlines, rock and roll and the military uses military (24 Hour) time?  It's just so much better.

[JulieC.]

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with it Cindy but I read that when you flush the toilet in Australia the water funnel flows in the opposite direction.  Since all great thought and planning take place on the john then it stands to reason we have to do our date the opposite way. 

[Laura823]

I alway use the following: 6 Jan., 2012

[Z7Z]

What I want to know is why no one outside of airlines, rock and roll and the military uses military (24 Hour) time?  It's just so much better.

Because then people could never redundantly say "It's too early, it's 6AM in the morning."  Seriously, though, we should all switch to military time.

As for the original topic, to this day I still have to think for a few seconds to figure out the American date format, even though I've lived here in the US for more than half my life, I still think in the Australian format. Oddly enough, though, when it comes to temperature I use Celcius for cold weather and Farenheit for warm weather, and can't seem to switch to either one or the other completely.  When it comes to other measurements (miles, cooking measurements, etc) I'm definitely used to the American way of figuring it out.

[tekla]

Actually though I like metric over English in general, I do like Fahrenheit more than Celsius, much greater differences.

[Jennifer]

Cindy,

Because my birthday is on January 1st (or the 1st of January), and because I am American, I have always written it as 01/01/59. But from now on I will write it as the rest of the world does...01/01/59.

Jennifer

P.S. When I was in 7th grade we were told that America was going to switch to the metric system. I was so happy to hear this because the metric system is obviously better and easier to understand. That was 40 years ago...

[tekla]

"It's too early, it's 6AM

They have a 6 in MORNING now too?

[Anatta]

Kia Ora Cindy,

I blame the bloody Romans for creating all this confusion ! Time, day, months, years ...All just illusions-- There's only one time and that is "NOW" outside this nothing else really matters !

Mind you when I first read the title of your thread I thought "Cor Blimey not another can't find a bloody 'date' thread!"

Metta Zenda

[melissa.wilkins]

We revolted against british rule over 200 years ago

so we changed a lot of stuff just to be different

so there

phtttpph

So why does the US still use the British system of weights & measures?

Ooh, my head hurts trying to understand all this.

[Felix]

So why does the US still use the British system of weights & measures?

Ooh, my head hurts trying to understand all this.

Good good. We try to make everything as confusing as possible.

[tekla]

So why does the US still use the British system of weights & measures?

Because it doesn't make a difference in our market.  Anyone who wants to sell here will make it that way if it seems important.  Some things are changing, slowly, but hey, look on the bright side, if your a tool company here you get to sell everyone two different wrench sets.

[Devlyn]

I thought dating systems were complex computer programs that match you up with someone who tells the same lies that you do? Hugs, Devlyn

[Assoluta]

To me the most logical system is the one the Japanese and other countries use - Year, month, day. E.g. 2012-06-01. Why? Because if you are saving or cataloguing files in numerical order, particularly on a computer system, this system ensures everything is kept in date order, from most recent to most long ago (or reverse, if you reverse the order).

I have to admit, I initially clicked on this thread because I thought it would be about systems used in dating. i.e. going out with people!!

[Joelene9]

To me the most logical system is the one the Japanese and other countries use - Year, month, day. E.g. 2012-06-01. Why? Because if you are saving or cataloguing files in numerical order, particularly on a computer system, this system ensures everything is kept in date order, from most recent to most long ago (or reverse, if you reverse the order).

I have to admit, I initially clicked on this thread because I thought it would be about systems used in dating. i.e. going out with people!!

I use that format in my spreadsheets and databases.  It makes it easier to sort by date.  I've seen more of that format on some sites that needs a date for information.  When I send in an observation to the Minor Planet Center, they want the YYYY MM DD.XXXXX!   The day is in a five place decimal with a resolution of 0.864 seconds!

  I also thought that this was a dating problems thread.  This 59 yr. old, never dated, needs dating tips!
  Joelene

[Cindy]

Sorry people didn't mean to confuse with dating tips

But if I guy asks you out on the 12/1/2012 you might miss out on a date!

Cindy