Both are wrong. The correct way to write the date is YYYY-MM-DD. This is the only way to sort dates linearly in a list. ISO 8601.
A funny thing about Americans and calendar dates
Submitted 1 month ago by Mickey7@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e0fe6ec7-7167-4830-8321-dd4f9ac3cb3d.jpeg
Comments
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 1 month ago
raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It’s frustrating that people are so bad at dates that ISO8601 lives rent-free in my head because I constantly have to tell people ;)
kameecoding@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Hungarian is close enough
YYYY.MM.DD
tatann@lemm.ee 1 month ago
I can be OK with that
But not with having elected the Trump of EU
MisterFrog@lemmy.world 1 month ago
♥️ this is what I decide to use at work. Dots are superior than dashes in my opinion because they prevent line breaks
Osan@lemmy.world 1 month ago
In Arabic we use DD/MM/YYYY but it actually gets written as YYYY/MM/DD since Arabic is written and read from right to left. When the year is dropped the confusing part is not what format is used here but rather does this website/software support RTL or is it just regular unformatted ASCII.
Ziglin@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Should work if you have an RTL invert character before, right? (Not that you could name files with the slashes.)
easily3667@lemmus.org 1 month ago
I’m so glad you think we are all computers
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 1 month ago
Our lives involve computers to a huge degree.
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Coldest take: if any common date format is difficult for you, you’re a little bit ridiculous
RyanLiu@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It’s all fun and games until someone drops a 7/4 and you don’t know which country they’re from
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
November 9 never forget.
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Context clues are enough for me, 4/7 times
Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I only deal with people from one country, but I always write out the month so there’s no confusion in important messages. Even including the day of the week as a type of verification.
tuhriel@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
I usually go for if it has a / its probably US date formate…
We use dots in our Locale
MisterFrog@lemmy.world 1 month ago
MM/DD/YYYY genuinely causes issues, because it’s very easily misread by the rest of the world, and vise versa for Americans.
I have been mislead more than once, because the MM and DD are both ≤ 12.
MM/DD/YYYY needs to die
Month Day YYYY is fine, because it’s unambiguous when the month is spelled out.
YYYY.MM.DD, or similar, is the only way to sort dates properly anyway.
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I don’t actually disagree with anything you said, I was just being a bit cheeky
henfredemars@infosec.pub 1 month ago
Happy not allowed! There can only be one correct date format!
Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 month ago
Why is the format not:
2025/4/12
Biggest time frame to smallest time frame (year, month, then day)?
Amir@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
As a computer scientist, I’ve been doing this everywhere for over 10 years already. Be the change you want to see in the world.
suite403@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I worked for a company that did their dates multiple ways and it was fucking impossible to know what date was what. It was super frustrating. I’d prefer this, but if you don’t, at least keep it consistent once you start.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Issues with unix paths. I prefer YYYY-MM-DD.
ptu@lemm.ee 1 month ago
2009, got it
harsh3466@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
This is the way.
chicagohuman@lemm.ee 1 month ago
ISO8601 FTW!
geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
ISO Tanf rise up.
Also 2025/04/12
sawdustprophet@midwest.social 1 month ago
2025/4/12
Don’t forget leading zeroes, we’re not half assing this!
Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 month ago
02025/04/012
Oaksey@lemmy.world 1 month ago
For written format that is ideal but when talking about a date, say in two weeks time, saying the year is redundant.
pyre@lemmy.world 1 month ago
my guess is order of relevance.
epicstove@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
In my computer engineering course this is literally how we were told to write the date on our lab reports.
Echo5@lemmy.world 1 month ago
This is how I do it- my folders and files are super easy to find
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Canada uses this
easily3667@lemmus.org 1 month ago
Because humans are not computers. That scheme makes sense when you are filling out things that are not nearby in time. For example, filling in your birth date on tax forms.
Otherwise, humans don’t generally need the context of the year. The same is true of the month only if the context is clear (I’ll see you on the 20th implies the very next 20th). A year is much longer and most things are not planned out that far in advance. If they are, they often dont have precise dates in which case a month or even a quarter is more appropriate.
Time is also one of those things where humans are so used to contextual processing that representing the full date adds overhead. 2025/4/20, 4/20/2025, 20/4/2025 all take more processing than “the 20th” or “next Sunday”.
kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 1 month ago
What Americans are calling people idiots for saying <day> of <month>? We say it both ways all the time. 4th of July, July 4th… it’s not a complicated thing.
SouthEndSunset@lemm.ee 1 month ago
It’s like saying USAians don’t have a sense of humour. Some USAians are MAGAt knob heads, some are perfectly reasonable people. More or less like anywhere else.
AA5B@lemmy.world 1 month ago
That is a weird one: every other date is “normal” order but for some reason this is an exception. Also weird that we call it with backward date more often than its actual holiday name
- July 4 is a normal date
- Independency Day is the name of the holiday
- so why do we usually refer to it as “Fourth of July”
ThatGuy46475@lemmy.world 1 month ago
We don’t say July 4 because that’s a normal date, we don’t say Independence Day because there are so many of those on different days for different countries.
henfredemars@infosec.pub 1 month ago
I like DD MON YYYY. Feels very grand and unambiguous, but people always look at me funny for using it.
SARGE@startrek.website 1 month ago
I’ve been told I need to redo paperwork because I marked the date like 12APR2025.
I get standardization for computers, but for something a person is going to look at I feel like it’s very direct, needs no explanation or interpretation. Anyone who sees it should be able to figure it out instantly.
Ziglin@lemmy.world 1 month ago
To be fair I read it as 12A PR 2025 (yes I am stupid). It could also be the 12th version of the main PR of 2025. I’m not great with abbreviations and when it comes to months I’m also not used to it. Numbers seem superior to me.
henfredemars@infosec.pub 1 month ago
There is very little room for interpretation even if you don’t know the date format. That’s BS.
SirBucksworth@lemmy.world 1 month ago
What do you think of DD/HH/YYYY/Min/MM/Sec?
Flipper@feddit.org 1 month ago
Could be improved by swapping hours and minutes. They are more important after all.
Also that way the time isn’t in order anymore.
MNByChoice@midwest.social 1 month ago
July 4th
Lembot_0001@lemm.ee 1 month ago
July 4th
How many Julies do you have there in the US? 5? 7?
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
We had one, yes, but what about fourth July?
Eat_Your_Paisley@lemm.ee 1 month ago
To be fair the holiday is actually Independence Day
WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 1 month ago
With the way things are going over there, the whole thing falls apart soon enough and this issue can be fixed in the rebuild.
Surp@lemmy.world 1 month ago
None of this dumb shits going to matter when the meteor sephiroth summoned blows the earth up
Harvey656@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I’m an American and do day/month/year.
I thought this was how it was done everywhere?
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 1 month ago
We say it thats way for the benefit of the British.
Bloomcole@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Don’t mock them.
One day you will meet one in person and he’ll beat you up if he’s 7 foot, 3/5 thumbs and 2 elbows tall.letsgo@lemm.ee 1 month ago
Don’t you mean Eramicans?
IzzyJ@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Why can’t we just call it Independence Day, that’s what it’s actually called
easily3667@lemmus.org 1 month ago
Up until the convent thread I’d never heard an American say that at all.
And there’s no proof the shithead in the comments is American. Definitely a troll though.
In any case this is easy to explain since the 4th of July was a holiday made by British citizens.
ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world 1 month ago
We write it how you’d say it. Outside of holidays or days of remembrance we write it how you say it.
For example today is 4/13/25. April 13th 2025. If you say the 13th of April you’re fuckin weird.
Deathray5@lemmynsfw.com 1 month ago
People mentioning ISOs are such forks and it’s adorable
NotSteve_@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
Canada’s just like you have to guess
TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 1 month ago
As someone from a yyyy-mm-dd country, you’re all wrong /hj
JoMiran@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
I always use yyyy.mm.dd as my date format whenever I sign and date documents. I also use a pictograph instead of initials. Someone tried to forge a contract edit to try and get out of paying but used the mm/dd/yy format. The moment my lawyer showed this to their lawyer, they settled immediately for the original amount, legal fees, and late payment penalties. Dumbasses.
PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk 1 month ago
That’s beautiful. I love a bit of personal standards to fuck someone else’s day up.
I typically change my responses on the form to Calibri if using MS Office. It’s not enough to pique anyone’s interest, but it’s different enough to spot what I’ve added to a form rather than the usual Arial additions if you’ve been told about it.
Someone at my office tried to say I’d said something on a form when I hadn’t, and took great delight pointing out the slight difference in typeface on the field that wasn’t my edit.
It’s satisfying as fuck coming back at someone with receipts.
lugal@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
So I could use a different than usual date format for a document I might want to recall
TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 1 month ago
All legal documents here use yyyy-mm-dd so I’ll unfortunately won’t be able to pull that :3
Lembot_0001@lemm.ee 1 month ago
And what is that country? Unixopia? Linukstadt? Databaseo?
TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 1 month ago
Lithuania if you want the serious answer :3… china, japan, both koreas, taiwan, bhutan, mongolia and hungary also use it
But yes, im from linuxstan :3
Ziglin@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Germany officially specified it for documents for a while but that was amended to also allow for dd.mm.yyyy since not enough people actually used ISO 8601.
JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
Why can’t Trump use unitary executive theory to do something good…like force everyone to use ISO 8601.
MithranArkanere@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Nah. Someone would make up some convoluted and confusing template, pass it to Trump as “freedom dates”, and he’s sign it without reading.
TabbsTheBat@pawb.social 1 month ago
Would probably claim it’s chinese propaganda or smth, and then go back to golfing
endeavor@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
Doing fumb shit like imperial, farenheit and mm dd yyyy is the most conservative thing possible. By definition.
swag_money@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Image
dutchkimble@lemy.lol 1 month ago
It’s the only correct way to save file names
sittinonatoilet@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
I’m similar I just don’t use - or anything. Works well when I sort concert recordings.
yyyymmdd Venue City State
Paddzr@lemmy.world 1 month ago
As long as month goes in the middle and the year is 4 digits, no confusion.