Date Question

[Fanpuck33_]

Ok, I recently was informed that much of the world uses the 24 hour clock, rather than the 12 hour clock used by the US. (i.e. 5 PM is 17:00)

Does much of the world also use the date format day-month-year?

I bring this up because that is the format used in EHM.

[simonus]

yup

[Fanpuck33_]

It's probably just because I am used to the month-day-year format, but the other system doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It makes much more sense to me to start with the time of year instead of the time of month.

I can understand using the 24:00 system of time, but the date format just doesn't seem like it's the best way to express a day.

[shortcat1]

On eBay France, this is the format used:

28-août-05 06:06:37 Paris

On eBay Great Britain, this is the format used:

01-Sep-05 19:15:00 BST

On eBay Germany, this is the format used:

30.08.05 16:06:06 MESZ

On eBay Belgium, this is the format used:

01-sep-05 21:53:21 CEST

On eBay Spain, this is the format used:

31-ago-05 21:18:05 H.Esp

On eBay Sweden, this is the format used:

Avslutas 2005-09-05 21:31:47 CEST

On eBay Swtzerland, this is the format used:

01.09.05 22:09:15 MESZ

So, you can see that although the 24 hour time measurement is used, there are variations on the writing of the date.

There are others, of course but this gives you an idea. I imgine that these groups use the time and date formats that their citizens are used to using.

Does that help?

:ghg::ghg::ghg:

[Edited on 2005/9/1 by shortcat1]

[Fanpuck33_]

I like Sweden's date the best of those, lol.

btw, thanks for the research shortcat. Above and beyond the call of duty.

[Edited on 9-1-05 by Fanpuck33]

[Peter Puck]

I read a couple of years ago that many countries (including Canada) are trying to standarize this. They have agreed to use the format year-month-date. This seems unusual but the reason for this format is that you can keep going:

year-month-date-hour-minute-second-(tenth of second)-(etc)

Where you should stop depends only on how precise you want to be.

Having said this (and I confess I kind of like this system) I haven't heard much about trying to promote its use.

[simonus]

i definitely like the year/month/day system (long used by grateful dead tapers). However, one could make a good argument for day/month/year in that you start with most precision and work out.

(also, the day.month.year system is how people say dates in french...)

[Edited on 9/2/2005 by simonus]

[Dutch_Habs_Fan]

I thought year/month/date was only used in the USA?

Here in Europe it's all Date/Month/Year, i believe.

Sometimes i got confused if it's a date, or they mean the month .The whole world should use the same.

I think the 24.00 in hours is the best to use!!

[Fanpuck33_]

Originally posted by Dutch_Habs_Fan

I thought year/month/date was only used in the USA?

Here in Europe it's all Date/Month/Year, i believe.

US uses month-day-year. I like this system the best. Most of the time, you know what year you are talking about, so putting it first doesn't make much sense. Save it for the end so if you need it, you can keep reading. I like having the month before the date though. First it tells you when in the year it and then the particular date.