# Writing the date **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 25, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-date/225999 "2004-01-25T15:17:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-date/225999/21 "2004-01-26T01:54:30Z")
**Whatever method they use in Rome is the correct one.** ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-date/225999/22 "2004-01-26T02:21:47Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > That depends on how you define “smallest.” To me the month is the smallest, since it can only go to 12- we consider it ordered from smallest (1-12) to biggest (0 to infinite), which seems very orderly 🙂 It’s smallest number vs smallest increment of time. I can’t see any point in doing it for that reason though - it isn’t as though the actual _values_ expressed are going to remain ordered (for example 11th of December comes out as 12/11/yyyy - even though eleven is less than twelve). I know it is mostly tradition, but I do think that ordering the units makes more sense (although from a strictly mathematical POV, they should probably be ordered with the smallest on the right). Imagine if half the world decided to express the time of day as mm:ss:hh. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-date/225999/23 "2004-01-26T03:08:19Z")
> [@audilover](#): > > In the military, the preferred format is DD Month YYYY. I’m curious… Has the military updated their date standard in the last fifteen years? I say this because when I was in, in the mid 80’s, we _always_ wrote dates as such: 01-JAN-99, with a two-digit year. No variations. Presumably, this changed with Y2K, no? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-date/225999/24 "2004-01-26T14:16:01Z")
Well, I follow the ISO standard and write dates as YYMMDD or YYYYMMDD because that’s the same order we write numbers, most significant digit first. It also sorts corectly on a computer. So 040126 \> 040126 and it is also larger than 031225 and so on. Let me make a minor hijack and mention that this is really a “mixed base” system. Once, when I was explaining to a class (in history of math) the possibility of number bases other than 10, I also mentioned that you could use a mixed base system, for example, base 60 in the first and second place and then base 24 in the third. This is essentially how we write time, except we use base 10 notation to actually represent the other bases. Sort of how we write IP addresses which are really 4 digit numbers in base 256. Anyway, I pointed out to the class that we learn to use _daily_ a mixed base system in which the third and higher places were in base 10, the second place was in base 12 and the first place was in base that varied from 28 to 31 according to a complicated function of the second and third places. Most, but not all, of the students eventually got it. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-date/225999/25 "2004-01-26T14:40:50Z")
> [@audilover](#): > > Americans don’t always write it month-day-year. In the military, the preferred format is DD Month YYYY. But it can vary a little depending on the context. And if it’s expressed in numbers, as it is commonly on forms, it’s either MM/DD/YY or YYYYMMDD Scientific format will also normally be DD Month YYYY: 10 July 1998, or 10 Jul 1998. On specimen labels, however, the month is often expressed as roman numerals, to avoid having the name of the month in a specific language, while at the same time making it distinct from the day: 10-VII-1998, or 10/VII/1998. ---
**Author:** ![Popup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@Popup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Popup)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-date/225999/26 "2004-01-26T16:13:36Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Scientific format will also normally be DD Month YYYY: 10 July 1998, or 10 Jul 1998. Yet again, that would depend on location. In the European labs I’ve been in, we try to follow the internationally agreed standard **ISO8601** , i.e. YYYY-MM-DD (2004-01-26). However, if there is any posibility for confusion to arise, I try to write todays date as “26 jan 2004” - That’s fairly culturally neutral, as in most languages the first three letters of the months are similar or identic. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-date/225999/27 "2004-01-26T17:14:06Z")
I’ve read that some of the Founding Fathers wanted to make a deliberate break with the British traditional format. At the top of the Declaration of Independence, it says “July 4, 1776”. That’ll show 'em! No need to muddy the waters with logic. ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-date/225999/28 "2004-01-26T18:09:18Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > I’m curious… Has the military updated their date standard in the last fifteen years? > > I say this because when I was in, in the mid 80’s, we _always_ wrote dates as such: 01-JAN-99, with a two-digit year. No variations. > Presumably, this changed with Y2K, no? Well, You still see 26-JAN-04 plenty often. It’s all usually a matter of context. The tops of letters usuall have it long ways: 26 January 2004. Forms vary a lot, but it’s there that you might see 26-JAN-04 or 26 Jan 04. The biggest rule is that there is no rule. As long as the day comes first and the month is spelled out. Ecept when people write the date after a signature, in which case it is _sometimes_ written 1/26/04. But around here, most people date their signatures, and even their personal checks like 26 Jan 04. That’s how I write my checks. Pisses my wife off. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2004, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-date/225999/29 "2004-01-26T18:43:49Z")
> [@Popup](#): > > Yet again, that would depend on location. In the European labs I’ve been in, we try to follow the internationally agreed standard **ISO8601** , i.e. YYYY-MM-DD (2004-01-26). > However, if there is any posibility for confusion to arise, I try to write todays date as “26 jan 2004” - That’s fairly culturally neutral, as in most languages the first three letters of the months are similar or identic. I was mainly referring to practice in scientific journals; at least the ones I see (even European, or at least UK-based ones) usually put the year last. Perhaps journals in other fields use other standards. As for the names of the months, well, yeah, they are often similar but there are enough differences to make some unintelligible if you don’t know the language. For example, Spanish ene/enero for January; French needs four letters to distinguish between juin and juillet. What months are these in Italian: _giugno luglio_? And Polish? _stycz. luty mar. kwiec. maj czerw. lip. sierp. wrzes. pazdz. listop. grudz._ I would hate to have to read specimen labels done by a Polish collector. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writing-the-date/225999.md?page=1)