DATE AND TIME

There's no possibility of confusion either when the date is spelled out (for example, 25 December 2002). Dates, however, are frequently given in purely numeric form, particularly in electronic data exchange. Sometimes there is a problem determining whether the figure representing the day or the month comes first. In international exchanges, the sender and receiver may not share the same "standard" for writing dates. In the USA, for example, the figure representing the month comes first, followed by the day, while in Europe, it is the reverse. This leaves a lot of room for misunderstanding, which can lead to disruption and unnecessary costs in business dealings - not to mention tears when a card or present fails to arrive on the right day. Another major concern is the misinterpretation of the expiry date of pharmamceutricals /medication.

However, there are numerous businesses where it is more convenient to indicate the date in numeric form. And, fortunately, there is an International Standard for date formats. By using ISO 8601, you can eliminate ambiguities and misinterpretations over dates - and the resulting costs and disruptions to your business.

Consider the following:
DATE
(Always from largest to smallest element: year, month, day, hour, minute, second)

How do you represent the first day of April in 2003?
ISO standard: 2003-04-01

DATE + HOUR + MINUTE + SECOND
How do you represent 5 April 2003, 23 hours, 20 minutes and 50 seconds?

ISO standard: 2003-04-05T23:20:50

NUMBERING OF WEEKS AND DAYS
(The week date is used in many commercial and industrial applications. Monday has been agreed as the most appropriate first day of the week).
How do you represent the first day of the fifteenth week of 2003?

ISO standard: 2003-W15-1

(This article was extracted from the ISO Café - Online information Services)

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