Pet Peeve -- numbers for dates

[Doc4]

And why is abbreviation such a long word?

Why is "dyslexia" such a complicated one? If I had a dollar for every time someone has told me he has lysdexia ...

 

[TexLaw]

In speaking the date in the states, does the day always/usually proceed the month's name, for example we always hear the '4th of July'. Up here, Canada, i'm going to say at least the way i generally hear it is month before day so we'd refer to July 4th.

Being in Canada we're swamped with both the American and British arrangements so constant confusion.

Date labelling for May expiry dates in my cupboards and fridge is always MA which gives pause when you see it on something in March/April - MA, March/May?

dave

When speaking, it's all over the place. You might any or all of "June fourth," "June four," "four June," or "fourth of June." The first instance is the most common in conversation, the third is the least common overall, the second often gets used in a business context and little otherwise, and the last typically is seen in a formal context.

 

[davent]

Thanks Doak & Chris, so really no different than us northeners, had no idea whether the written convention carried over to speaking.
dave

 

[StillShaving]

06/01 or even better 6/1 is fine for June 1st with a little context. That is all I used in my notebooks where the year is understood.

 

[StuMcB]

How do think I feel. Born late 1960's and was taught both metric and imperial systems. All the maths books were still the old system but the new world was all metric. I like to mess with my teenage daughter who only knows metric, I say "whats that in kilometres or mph or thats about 6 1/2 inches then" to her and her face goes blank.

 

[Rushman2112]

As far as I can recall, growing up in England from 1961, dates were always dd/mm/yy but I never went to a posh school. Legal documents always seem to be dated "This 24th day of May" and it sort of makes sense temporally

 

[captp]

And why is abbreviation such a long word?

Monosyllabic
I'll just leave that here.

 

[PreachTheWord]

I still write it 04JUL2019. It's a habit I picked up from the military.

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Same here. Picked it up the same place.

 

[Lightcs1776]

Same here. Picked it up the same place.

Nice!

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[PreachTheWord]

Funny how some of the things taught to you by Uncle Sam stay with you.

 

[cleanshaved]

Time to move to five digit Julian Calendar. 04/07/19, 4th July or what ever would be 19185
First two are for the year and the last three for the day of the year.
You may need to carry a converter with you though.

Here is part of one I made for this year. Just remember to adjust for a leap year or you will be out by a day for most of the year.

Less confusing?

 

[Vespasian]

Time to move to five digit Julian Calendar. 04/07/19, 4th July or what ever would be 19185
First two are for the year and the last three for the day of the year.
You may need to carry a converter with you though.

Here is part of one I made for this year. Just remember to adjust for a leap year or you will be out by a day for most of the year.

Less confusing?

View attachment 983759

But haven't we moved on from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar? The Russians were the last to convert, I believe.

 

[cleanshaved]

But haven't we moved on from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar? The Russians were the last to convert, I believe.

They are still in use around the world in some barcodes likhie a EAN128 barcode for example. Although it is user definable so not always in that one.

 

[shavefan]

Julian dates are quite common for production dates on products. The codes you see on bottles, cans, containers in the food and beverage industry for example.

Production code may look something like this...

AF 14 1859 23:44

AF is the plant location code, 14 is the production line, 1859 is the production date (July 4th 2019) and 23:44 is the time. Traceability.

 

[DCRIII]

But ... but ... then what would the abbreviation for "May" be?

Everyone knows the abbreviation for May is "BOB"!

 

[Vespasian]

Julian dates are quite common for production dates on products. The codes you see on bottles, cans, containers in the food and beverage industry for example.

Production code may look something like this...

AF 14 1859 23:44

AF is the plant location code, 14 is the production line, 1859 is the production date (July 4th 2019) and 23:44 is the time. Traceability.

This is stunning news to me. I thought that the only holdovers from the Julian system were Orthodox liturgical systems. Why would anyone use today a calendar system proved inaccurate by Pope Gregory's mathematicians centuries ago? If I wanted to trace the date of a coded beer-can, say, would I have to translate the Julian to the Gregorian system?

I accept that there must be something I am not getting here; do please explain.

 

[razorboi]

Drives me nuts when I see "two digit, two digit, two digit" as a means of expressing a date. Okay, if the "day" digits happen to be for the latter half of the month, then at least the "day" part is going to be understandable.

But ...

The one and only way to do it that does not involve any confusion is to remove confusion as follows:

• year shown as four digits.
• month by two letters, not digits. And yes, if you pick the right letters, you have each month represented without confusion!
• January: JA (only "J" month with an "a" as well)
• February: FE
• March: MR (only "M" month with an "r")
• April: AL (only "A" month with an "l")
• May: MY
• June: JN
• July: JY
• August: AU
• September: SE
• October: OC
  
• November: NO
• December: DE

I don't understand.
It's very confusing, this system you advocate.
I've never encountered two-letter abbreviations for months before. Why must the months be thus represented? I reckon I'll never learn it, as I still have to look up the two-letter postal abbreviations for most States!
And what of the days? You make no mention of them, nor the order in which the three components are to be laid out in such a system.
Surely this cannot constitute "The one and only way to do it..."

 

[razorboi]

So, the Brits would write 4/7/2019 for July 4th 2019 and the Americans write 7/4/2019. The problems is people don't always say if they are British or American when they write numbers for dates. I see this all the time and it drives me batty. It is only helpful if one of the numbers excluding the year is over 12.

To say nothing of the Brits who write the date after the American fashion when their intended audience is American, or vice versa. How is one to know?
It's an intractable problem.
And it wouldn't help to know the nationality of the writer, or speaker. Just ask the Brit who orders a pint of beer in the U.S. and only gets only 16 ounces! Surely, as a Brit, he was clearly asking for 20...

 

[razorboi]

Day/Month/Year or Year/Month/Day are the only two systems that make sense, as they are both "progressions" (in opposite directions). Naturally, the US adopted the Month/Day/Year just to mess with the rest of the world.

For the record, I am a D/M/Y guy whenever it comes up.

You make a compelling point about progressions, but only (four-digit) "year-month-day" is entirely without ambiguity because there exists no custom for its alternative, "year-day-month."
With "day-month-year" there will always exist the potential for ambiguity as long as there remains customary usage of "month-day-year" among English language readers.

 

[razorboi]

There is an older, out-of-date British system, which has the added fun of using lower-case Roman numerals. 4.vii.2019.

How old is that? I used to live in England and I don't remember ever encountering it.