By accident, I discovered that Google Translate translates a date format of dd.mm.yyyy to mm/dd/yyyy. It’s unclear whether there is an established standard of using slashes for month-first dates and dots for day-first dates, but such a standard would eliminate great confusion. Below is a (non-exhaustive) list of date and time formats along with my preferences.
| Format | Example | Preference |
|---|---|---|
d<Suffix> of Month, yyyy |
4th of May, 1900 | Alternative |
Mth d, yyyy |
May 4, 1900 | Preferred |
m/d |
5/4 | Alternative |
dd.mm |
04.05 | Alternative |
mm/dd/yyyy |
05/04/1900 | Alternative |
dd.mm.yyyy |
04.05.1900 | Preferred |
yyyy-mm-dd |
1900-05-04 | Preferred |
| Format | Example | Preference |
|---|---|---|
h tt h:MM tt |
8 AM 8:30 AM |
Preferred |
HH:MM |
08:00 | Alternative |
HH:MM tt |
08:00 AM | Alternative |
h o'clock |
8 o’clock | Alternative |
HHmm hrs |
0800 hrs | Preferred |
I use “a.m.” and “p.m.” or “am” and “pm,” or “AM” and “PM,” based on the surrounding text context.
On this website, the following date formats will be used for references:
The “X” represents the literal “X”. For examples, go back to ~/notes.
IBM documentation on date and time formats IBM CMOFZ 10.1.0
Date-Time Group format Wikipedia: Date-time group