Date and time notation in Canada
Encyclopedia
Canada
has signed up to use the ISO 8601
format for date and time representation through national standard CSA Z234.5:1989.
has adopted the ISO 8601
yyyy-MM-dd (e.g., 2009-12-31) date format; however, the dd/MM/(yy)yy (e.g., 31/12/(20)09) date format is still widely known, especially in Quebec because it is the order used when a date is written in French (e.g., trente et un décembre deux mille neuf). The MM/dd/(yy)yy (e.g., 12/31/(20)09) date format is also known because of the influences from the United States. In more casual use, the three different date formats can cause ambiguity. For example, this all-numeric date format "01/02/03" can be 3 different expanded date forms. It can be European "01 February 2003", American "January 02, 2003", and some might even think it could be ISO 8601
for "3 February 2001", even though the ISO standard always uses four digits for the year. Today, people are more exposed to the American date format and the ISO 8601
date format due to the updated technology. The ISO 8601
date format is an easy date format to understand because it always starts from the biggest number first and then goes down to the smallest number last, year(2009)-month(12)-day(31), and the format always includes the date with a 4-digit year, so it is free from ambiguity.
In Canada, all three date formats are used, yyyy-MM-dd or yyyy MMMM dd (big-endian), dd/MM/(yy)yy or dd MMMM yyyy (little-endian) and MM/dd/(yy)yy or MMMM dd, yyyy (middle-endian). All short date formats should display leading zeros for any numbers below 10. The separator is usually a hyphen or a slash. Expanded date formats may display leading zeros (e.g., 09 December 2009) or may not (e.g., 9 December 2009) for numbers below 10. They may also include the weekday name. The British expanded date form would look like "Thursday, 31 December 2009" and the American expanded date form would look like "Thursday, December 31, 2009". There may also be abbreviations for words in any date format (e.g., 2009-Dec-31, Thu). Weekday name and month abbreviations are usually the first three or four letters of the word (Weekday abbreviated names: Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat—Months: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec). Calendars mostly show Sunday as the first day of the week. In addition, most provincial governments and the Federal government of Canada use little endian i.e. 31 December 2010.
is used in ordinary life by the English-speaking population. French
speakers, however, often use the 24-hour clock
. The 24-hour clock is also routinely used in health care settings, such as hospitals, as well as by airlines, environmental services, railways, bus lines, ferry services, and the military.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
has signed up to use the ISO 8601
ISO 8601
ISO 8601 Data elements and interchange formats – Information interchange – Representation of dates and times is an international standard covering the exchange of date and time-related data. It was issued by the International Organization for Standardization and was first published in 1988...
format for date and time representation through national standard CSA Z234.5:1989.
Date
The Canadian Standards AssociationCanadian Standards Association
The Canadian Standards Association, also known as the CSA, is a not-for-profit Standards organization with the stated aim of developing standards for use in 57 different areas of specialisation...
has adopted the ISO 8601
ISO 8601
ISO 8601 Data elements and interchange formats – Information interchange – Representation of dates and times is an international standard covering the exchange of date and time-related data. It was issued by the International Organization for Standardization and was first published in 1988...
yyyy-MM-dd (e.g., 2009-12-31) date format; however, the dd/MM/(yy)yy (e.g., 31/12/(20)09) date format is still widely known, especially in Quebec because it is the order used when a date is written in French (e.g., trente et un décembre deux mille neuf). The MM/dd/(yy)yy (e.g., 12/31/(20)09) date format is also known because of the influences from the United States. In more casual use, the three different date formats can cause ambiguity. For example, this all-numeric date format "01/02/03" can be 3 different expanded date forms. It can be European "01 February 2003", American "January 02, 2003", and some might even think it could be ISO 8601
ISO 8601
ISO 8601 Data elements and interchange formats – Information interchange – Representation of dates and times is an international standard covering the exchange of date and time-related data. It was issued by the International Organization for Standardization and was first published in 1988...
for "3 February 2001", even though the ISO standard always uses four digits for the year. Today, people are more exposed to the American date format and the ISO 8601
ISO 8601
ISO 8601 Data elements and interchange formats – Information interchange – Representation of dates and times is an international standard covering the exchange of date and time-related data. It was issued by the International Organization for Standardization and was first published in 1988...
date format due to the updated technology. The ISO 8601
ISO 8601
ISO 8601 Data elements and interchange formats – Information interchange – Representation of dates and times is an international standard covering the exchange of date and time-related data. It was issued by the International Organization for Standardization and was first published in 1988...
date format is an easy date format to understand because it always starts from the biggest number first and then goes down to the smallest number last, year(2009)-month(12)-day(31), and the format always includes the date with a 4-digit year, so it is free from ambiguity.
In Canada, all three date formats are used, yyyy-MM-dd or yyyy MMMM dd (big-endian), dd/MM/(yy)yy or dd MMMM yyyy (little-endian) and MM/dd/(yy)yy or MMMM dd, yyyy (middle-endian). All short date formats should display leading zeros for any numbers below 10. The separator is usually a hyphen or a slash. Expanded date formats may display leading zeros (e.g., 09 December 2009) or may not (e.g., 9 December 2009) for numbers below 10. They may also include the weekday name. The British expanded date form would look like "Thursday, 31 December 2009" and the American expanded date form would look like "Thursday, December 31, 2009". There may also be abbreviations for words in any date format (e.g., 2009-Dec-31, Thu). Weekday name and month abbreviations are usually the first three or four letters of the word (Weekday abbreviated names: Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat—Months: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec). Calendars mostly show Sunday as the first day of the week. In addition, most provincial governments and the Federal government of Canada use little endian i.e. 31 December 2010.
Time
In Canada, similar to the United States, the 12-hour clock12-hour clock
The 12-hour clock is a time conversion convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods called ante meridiem and post meridiem...
is used in ordinary life by the English-speaking population. French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
speakers, however, often use the 24-hour clock
24-hour clock
The 24-hour clock is a convention of time keeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours, indicated by the hours passed since midnight, from 0 to 23. This system is the most commonly used time notation in the world today...
. The 24-hour clock is also routinely used in health care settings, such as hospitals, as well as by airlines, environmental services, railways, bus lines, ferry services, and the military.