scrubbedexpat097

When in Rome I think is the apt mumble in the empty room

scrubbedexpat091

I'd avoid Canada if I were you then, depending on what/who your dealing with the date can be written any of the following ways here:

Year/Month/Day

Day/Month/Year

Month/Day/Year

For example:

Passport Canada wants it Year/Month/Day

http://passport.gc.ca/form/pdfs/pptc054.pdf

My bank on the cheques wants it Day/Month/Year

Immigration Canada uses Day/Month/Year (from the document in my passport.)

My BC drivers license uses Year/Month/Day

It can be quite interesting at times trying to figure out the date on things sometimes, there is ZERO consistency here, the US is much more consistent when it comes to dates written at-least

hungryhorace

Canada uses predominantly ISO 8601 and Little Endian format. They're also smart enough to tell the time using the 24hr clock.

scrubbedexpat091

I live here, and have for 10 years, all 3 ways are commonly used, its far more confusing here then in the US where they are pretty standard with the style they used, Canada is not standard and all depends on who your dealing with.

Outside of government, there is no consistency in Canada. Plain and simple all 3 versions are commonly used and accepted.

The US at least despite you hating the version they use, is at least consistent in the version used.

As for the time thing, plenty of Canadians have no idea how to use 24 hour clock, I've worked with plenty over the years and had to correct their mistakes on time sheets because they didn't know 24 hour clock.

If you don't like the way the US does things, your free to leave, when you up and move to another country you have to adapt the local customs and way of doing things.

Yorkieabroad

If I talk to myself during the day when my wife's at work, am I still wrong?

lizzyq

YYYYMMDD makes sense from a data processing point of view as it is easy to sort numerically.

DDMMYYYY needs to be reversed to sort.

MMDDYYYY needs to be deconvolved to sort.

dunroving

This thread put a smile on my face first thing in the morning.

At least I know I am right in saying it is currently 09-09-2014 (I'm sure someone will be along soon to point out why it is wrong, though)

scrubbedexpat097

I'm sure the dog listens to you

Yorkieabroad

Apparently not....seems my dog has more in common with my wife than I thought....!!

https://www.thedodo.com/what-do-dogs...710518144.html

dunroving

Is there a slash vs. dash rule?

09/09/2014, or 09-09-2014? Or either?

Yorkieabroad

That's my favorite word of the day so far

ddmmyy or mmddyy - I can swing either way, but what really ticks me off is when you come across the 'opposite' way in an unexpected place....like coming in to the US, one of the official forms has (or used to have) it ddmmyy instead of mmddyy.

The other thing that ticks me off, that I'd never really noticed till I came here is the habit of just giving a date rather than day/date...eg "we'll meet on 9/17", rather than "we'll meet on Wednesday 9/17". Sure, it takes a fraction longer, but a) it makes it easier for the recipient and b) it builds in a double check.

Yorkieabroad

I normally slash as its easier to find on a keyboard, and neater to write freehand

hungryhorace

To be fair, that's because the rest of the world uses the little endian system. Hence they won't be expecting to use the middle endian.

Mostly everything is broken about the way America does date and time formats.

scrubbedexpat097

I could comment on this..

hungryhorace

Exactly. MMDDYYYY (Middle Endian) may be the US standard, but I fail to understand why a site designed for *British* people emigrating would use anything other than ISO 8601 or little endian.