SRSAutistic
Active Member
There are 3 different types of date formats used around the world: month-day-year (MM/DD/YYYY), day-month-year (DD/MM/YYYY), and year-month-day (YYYY-MM-DD). The US uses month-day-year, which is not used by any other country. The rest of the world uses day-month-year, and Asia uses year-month-day. The ISO 8601 (International Standards Organization) date format is YYYY-MM-DD.
Canada is the only country to use all three date formats which can cause confusion as the official languages of Canada are English and French. Canada is influenced by US, UK, and French culture, so using all three formats can confuse anyone. Canada uses MM/DD/YYYY in English as it is influenced by the US (biggest trading partner), but it also uses DD/MM/YYYY due to its British roots. As French is the official language of the province of Québéc, it uses DD/MM/YYYY. This is why the Canadian government recommends YYYY-MM-DD as it removes all confusion and is understood by anyone regardless of language barriers.
For example, today’s date (December 31st, 2022) would be written as “12/31/2022” in the US, “31/12/2022” in the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world, and “2022-12-31” in Asia. This can cause confusion around the world as when the day number is below 12, there is a 36% chance of confusion. When the month and day numbers are the same, or the day number is over 12, there is no confusion.
What happens if you have a date such as “02/01/2023”? I would say “February 1st, 2023”, and you would say “2nd January 2023”. A date such as “2023-02-01” is interpreted as “2023 February 1”, which is understood worldwide. This is why it is better to write out the month when writing the date as the date can be understood by anyone regardless of the format.
Canada is the only country to use all three date formats which can cause confusion as the official languages of Canada are English and French. Canada is influenced by US, UK, and French culture, so using all three formats can confuse anyone. Canada uses MM/DD/YYYY in English as it is influenced by the US (biggest trading partner), but it also uses DD/MM/YYYY due to its British roots. As French is the official language of the province of Québéc, it uses DD/MM/YYYY. This is why the Canadian government recommends YYYY-MM-DD as it removes all confusion and is understood by anyone regardless of language barriers.
For example, today’s date (December 31st, 2022) would be written as “12/31/2022” in the US, “31/12/2022” in the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world, and “2022-12-31” in Asia. This can cause confusion around the world as when the day number is below 12, there is a 36% chance of confusion. When the month and day numbers are the same, or the day number is over 12, there is no confusion.
What happens if you have a date such as “02/01/2023”? I would say “February 1st, 2023”, and you would say “2nd January 2023”. A date such as “2023-02-01” is interpreted as “2023 February 1”, which is understood worldwide. This is why it is better to write out the month when writing the date as the date can be understood by anyone regardless of the format.
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