What is the best format to use when writing out dates?


What format of date is appropriate for different contexts (business, personal) in written English, nowadays?



  • 1st of April, 2010

  • April the 1st, 2010

  • April 1, 2010

  • April 01, 2010

  • another one



Answer



The context that matters most is where you are located geographically (or which variety of English you otherwise wish to employ).


Paul covered the case of the US: "April 1, 2010". That would surely be understood in the UK too, but to my knowledge "1 April 2010" (NB: no comma) or "1/4/2010" would be more common there.


Edit: Based on some quick "research" I just did, most commonwealth countries (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) also seem to prefer "1 April 2010", while in Canada "April 1, 2010" would be more common (probably due to US influence).


As Paul mentioned, YYYY-MM-DD is pretty good for getting across universally, yet concisely. In my opinion the format often used by airlines – "01 Apr 2010" – is useful too; there isn't much room for misinterpretation there.


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