Clive Thorne Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 On 9/15/2020 at 5:14 PM, alex_holden said: It's actually one of the variants of the international standard date format (ISO 8601). Ah - but does being a standard necessarily mean it makes sense ? Especially when the standards include multiple (and contradictory) options?🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_holden Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 6 minutes ago, Clive Thorne said: Ah - but does being a standard necessarily mean it makes sense ? Especially when the standards include multiple (and contradictory) options?🙂 Not always, but in this case I believe it's a good standard that would greatly reduce date-related confusion if everyone adopted it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcoover Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 "The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from..." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Thorne Posted September 19, 2020 Share Posted September 19, 2020 (edited) On 9/17/2020 at 4:50 PM, alex_holden said: Not always, but in this case I believe it's a good standard that would greatly reduce date-related confusion if everyone adopted it. I've had a quick look at the link you gave and can't see an example of the MMDDYYY format that UPS seem to be using. There are examples of the YYYYMMDD format, which I have no logical problem with........ But obviously the UK typical DDMMYYY is still the 'correct' one (Multiple smileys here)!! I guess it's a Little Endian/Big Endian sort of thing. As I say it was a quick look, so may have missed it. Edited September 19, 2020 by Clive Thorne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Barnert Posted September 19, 2020 Share Posted September 19, 2020 3 hours ago, Clive Thorne said: I've had a quick look at the link you gave and can't see an example of the MMDDYYY format that UPS seem to be using. There are examples of the YYYYMMDD format, which I have no logical problem with........ But obviously the UK typical DDMMYYY is still the 'correct' one (Multiple smileys here)!! I guess it's a Little Endian/Big Endian sort of thing. As I say it was a quick look, so may have missed it. MM/DD/YYYY, as it appears in the log in the first post is (right or wrong), the standard American way of expressing dates. Before the turn of the millennium it was common to include only two characters for the year, but that’s frowned upon now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcoover Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 The nice thing about YYYYMMDD is that in a spreadsheet or file listing everything can be easily sorted chronologically by year, whereas with MMDDYYYY everything sorts by month and the years are scrambled. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimR Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 That is the reason I used YYYY/MM/DD when scripting at work. Easier to sort-by-date and find the newest or oldest occurances of whatever you're looking at. I still use yyyy/mm/dd today when saving receipts and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex_holden Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 10 hours ago, Clive Thorne said: I've had a quick look at the link you gave and can't see an example of the MMDDYYY format that UPS seem to be using. There are examples of the YYYYMMDD format, which I have no logical problem with........ But obviously the UK typical DDMMYYY is still the 'correct' one (Multiple smileys here)!! I guess it's a Little Endian/Big Endian sort of thing. As I say it was a quick look, so may have missed it. @pentaprism said he prefers "YYYYMMDDHHMMSS", which you called, "the American way, which is obviously wrong." I replied that it is actually a variant of the International standard ISO 8601. UPS's format is the one that is confusing and ambiguous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Barnert Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 11 hours ago, David Barnert said: MM/DD/YYYY, as it appears in the log in the first post is (right or wrong), the standard American way of expressing dates. Before the turn of the millennium it was common to include only two characters for the year, but that’s frowned upon now. 9 hours ago, gcoover said: The nice thing about YYYYMMDD is that in a spreadsheet or file listing everything can be easily sorted chronologically by year, whereas with MMDDYYYY everything sorts by month and the years are scrambled. The American standard, of course, became so long before the invention of the personal computer, at a time when spreadsheet behavior was not a prevalent concern. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Thorne Posted September 20, 2020 Share Posted September 20, 2020 14 hours ago, alex_holden said: @pentaprism said he prefers "YYYYMMDDHHMMSS", which you called, "the American way, which is obviously wrong." I replied that it is actually a variant of the International standard ISO 8601. UPS's format is the one that is confusing and ambiguous. Yes, I agree, which is what I thought I said in my first post. The "obviously wrong" should have had smileys by it - my intent was to tease the Americans a bit., but it obviously got lost in the blunt instrument of text. I can see the logical for YYYYMMDD as, as others have said, case a simple text sort will but it in chronolgical order. Still doesn't make it right though (lots of smileys here again). Next thing you'll have me saying thing like "November Seven" (as heard in adverts for films) instead of "Seventh of November". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Laban Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 Quote Next thing you'll have me saying thing like "November Seven" (as heard in adverts for films) instead of "Seventh of November". It's a slippery slope before you know it you will be talking not about London or Dublin but London, England and Dublin, Ireland 😉 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Aumann Posted September 24, 2020 Share Posted September 24, 2020 For what it's worth: I bought a concertina from a UK auction last week. For 35 GBP, UPS collected it on 17 Sept, protected/boxed it VERY well, and delivered it by courier to my home in Melbourne, Australia yesterday , 23 Sept. It was easy to track all the way through Denmark, France, Kentucky, Hawaii and Sydney via their app. I couldn't fault the service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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