Could be improved by swapping hours and minutes. They are more important after all.

Also that way the time isn't in order anymore.

yyyy-mm-dd is specified by ISO 8601, so there's really no argument it isn't the objectively correct format.

I always use yyyy.mm.dd as my date format whenever I sign and date documents. I also use a pictograph instead of initials. Someone tried to forge a contract edit to try and get out of paying but used the mm/dd/yy format. The moment my lawyer showed this to their lawyer, they settled immediately for the original amount, legal fees, and late payment penalties. Dumbasses.

In Arabic we use DD/MM/YYYY but it actually gets written as YYYY/MM/DD since Arabic is written and read from right to left. When the year is dropped the confusing part is not what format is used here but rather does this website/software support RTL or is it just regular unformatted ASCII.

Edit: it's still not ISO 8601 and it doesn't solve the sorting issue

I'm so glad you think we are all computers

It's frustrating that people are so bad at dates that ISO8601 lives rent-free in my head because I constantly have to tell people ;)

ISO Tanf rise up.

Also 2025/04/12

Because humans are not computers. That scheme makes sense when you are filling out things that are not nearby in time. For example, filling in your birth date on tax forms.

Otherwise, humans don't generally need the context of the year. The same is true of the month only if the context is clear (I'll see you on the 20th implies the very next 20th). A year is much longer and most things are not planned out that far in advance. If they are, they often dont have precise dates in which case a month or even a quarter is more appropriate.

Time is also one of those things where humans are so used to contextual processing that representing the full date adds overhead. 2025/4/20, 4/20/2025, 20/4/2025 all take more processing than "the 20th" or "next Sunday".

As a computer scientist, I've been doing this everywhere for over 10 years already. Be the change you want to see in the world.

Issues with unix paths. I prefer 2025-04-12.

ISO8601 FTW!

MM/DD/YYYY genuinely causes issues, because it's very easily misread by the rest of the world, and vise versa for Americans.

I have been mislead more than once, because the MM and DD are both ≤ 12.

MM/DD/YYYY needs to die

Month Day YYYY is fine, because it's unambiguous when the month is spelled out.

YYYY.MM.DD, or similar, is the only way to sort dates properly anyway.

It's all fun and games until someone drops a 7/4 and you don't know which country they're from