The Problem With Localizing Dates
Different locales have different preferences for how to display dates and times. While they could look similar, the differences can be significant. For example, the US American date format looks like: 12/29/2021 (MM/DD/YYYY). On the other hand, the British-English format switches the month and the days: 29/12/2021 (DD/MM/YYYY). While the example above makes it clear which number refers to the day and which refers to the month (since 29 cannot possibly refer to a month), the following examples are not so clear:- US American: 10/08/2021
- British-English: 08/10/2021
Date Formatting in Different Countries
The US American and British-English formats are just the tips of the iceberg. There are even more formatting conventions in different countries. Here are some other common date formats in various parts of the world:- Canada: YYYY-MM-DD (i.e. 2021-10-12)
- Italian: DD.MM.YY (i.e. 12.10.21)
- Thai: DD/MM/YYYY (i.e. 12/10/2021)
- Spanish: DD-MM-YYYY (i.e. 12-10-2021)
Formatting Time
There are not as many variations on the convention for time, making it less confusing. There are generally two accepted time formats:- 24-hour format: This format starts out with the hour and then the minutes. When it starts with a ‘0,’ it means it’s morning. For example, 02:23 would mean 2:23 in the morning. Most non-English speaking countries use this convention.
- 12-hour format: The 12-hour format only goes up to digit 12. It distinguishes morning and night with the Latin abbreviations AM and PM. For example, 2:23 AM. Most English-speaking nations (i.e. USA, Canada, and Australia) use this convention.
