It’s in sort order. Even if you use it for things that don’t understand dates, they sort properly because the day is the last part, month is the middle part, and year is the first part. If you include hours, minutes or seconds, the sort order is still preserved.
Speaking of things that don’t understand dates, because there are no slashes, you can easily use it in file names, directories, and anything else that treats slash as a special character. In addition, if you include the time part, because it uses “T” to separate the date and time, it doesn’t use a space, so once again it can be easily used anywhere where a space might cause issues.
To be fair, the time separators don’t behave well on all implementations of filesystem access by filename. Need to use underscores or omit them at times.
July 4th is a funny example cause you can say “the 4th” and everyone knows what you mean, but people also say “4th of July” to give it more importance.
That’s a lot less common for other dates, Americans aren’t commonly saying “25th of December”.
same. even if they give a different format, because fuck that I’m not thinking about what arbitrary format you want me to use, I see a date field and I’m filling it out with the proper date format
I shorthand it verbally unless I’m giving a full date, but typed, it’s almost always yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss (whichever part of that is relevant).
I do this because I believe it’s the most logical, it sorts properly without having to use a datetime library, and it can’t be confused with another system (is 12-1-2026 in the future or the past? No way to know just by looking at it).
Just shortening it to MM-dd could cause confusion with anyone not in the US so I’ll typically include the year as well (also useful if I wind up having to look at old notes or emails to not have to figure out the year I meant … Which has happened more than once …)
Only a truly insane person would use mm-dd-yy in conversation. “Want to go to a hockey game with me ten seventeen twenty-six?” Or worse, “…oh four oh seven twenty-seven.” Pure madness.
Conversationally, mmm d yy or d mmm yy (usually just shortened to mmm d or d mmm) is where it’s at.
yes, I’ll send dates as mm-dd in my personal life as well. only when discussing exact dates for scheduling things, otherwise in conversational messaging it’s mmmm dd
like if we’re talking about when we want to go do x activity, I’ll propose August 8th. but if we’re scheduling trip dates, it’s 08-08 through 09-12
ISO 8601
As for why it’s better:
To be fair, the time separators don’t behave well on all implementations of filesystem access by filename. Need to use underscores or omit them at times.
This is the way.
This is the way.
This is the (year-month-) day.
RFC 3339
ISO would be great, but sadly OmegaStar doesn’t support ISO timestamps yet.
Wtf is an omega star?
A Warrior Cats and Omegaverse crossover character
What’s a warrior cat
Not shit enough for a shitpost.
It’s great, and standard for software. But do any of y’all communicate dates like this in your personal life?
Like “want to go to a hockey game with me 2026-10-17?” As cursed as mm-dd-yy is, it feels a lot more natural in conversation.
Say when is that independence day of yours?
There is nothing ‘natural’ about mm/dd/yy, it is just what you are used to - end of story.
I knew I would eat shit for that comment.
July 4th is a funny example cause you can say “the 4th” and everyone knows what you mean, but people also say “4th of July” to give it more importance.
That’s a lot less common for other dates, Americans aren’t commonly saying “25th of December”.
I always feel like rolling my eyes whilst Americans slowly drawl the month at me before telling me the day of the month I wanted
“Dec…”
Oh god, you’re American
“…em…”
Here we go, we’re going for it
“…berrrrr”
Yes, we’re getting there
“…rrrrrrr”
Hopefully we get to the date, or I’m going to have to ask someone else
[inhales]
Why did it have to be an American
“Twenty….”
Please not the year
“…-seventh”
Hallelujah, thank the lord, we have a date. Oh Jesus, why such an ordeal. So much time for stupid intrusive thoughts. What was it again…?
Admittedly like most of this is my failings as a person
Ok, let me rephrase that: See how 4th of July feels natural for you to say or hear?
That’s because you’re used to it.
That’s how it is for the rest of us using DD-MM-YYYY, but for all dates.
Because that’s what we are used to. And yes we use it in everyday life and in every conversation.
That is all there is to it.
What you are used to inevitably becomes more natural for you subjectively…
I absolutely fill out dates in iso 8601 any time I’m required to sign a form.
I like your style. I’ll start doing that, (unless a format is specified, because I’m no protocol breaker.)
same. even if they give a different format, because fuck that I’m not thinking about what arbitrary format you want me to use, I see a date field and I’m filling it out with the proper date format
Yes, kind of.
I shorthand it verbally unless I’m giving a full date, but typed, it’s almost always yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss (whichever part of that is relevant).
I do this because I believe it’s the most logical, it sorts properly without having to use a datetime library, and it can’t be confused with another system (is 12-1-2026 in the future or the past? No way to know just by looking at it).
Just shortening it to MM-dd could cause confusion with anyone not in the US so I’ll typically include the year as well (also useful if I wind up having to look at old notes or emails to not have to figure out the year I meant … Which has happened more than once …)
Only a truly insane person would use mm-dd-yy in conversation. “Want to go to a hockey game with me ten seventeen twenty-six?” Or worse, “…oh four oh seven twenty-seven.” Pure madness.
Conversationally, mmm d yy or d mmm yy (usually just shortened to mmm d or d mmm) is where it’s at.
yes, I’ll send dates as mm-dd in my personal life as well. only when discussing exact dates for scheduling things, otherwise in conversational messaging it’s mmmm dd
like if we’re talking about when we want to go do x activity, I’ll propose August 8th. but if we’re scheduling trip dates, it’s 08-08 through 09-12
I spell out the month, but I’m fancy