This format (DD MMM YYYY) has several advantages: (1) It is totally unambiguous -- cannot be misread in any language (as far as I know). All digit-only formats contain the potential for confusion between month and day, and sometimes year. (2) It is widely used: the US military uses it (and, I presume, some other branches of the government). Marcus points out that it is used in a number of countries. (3) My experience (admittedly, mostly with Americans) is that formats starting with the year are not nearly as well received (e.g., 2001.8.3). Two disadvantages: (1) It is not being easily computer sortable, due to the text month and the little-endian format. (2) Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, does not properly parse dates with spaces in some applications (e.g., some versions of Excel). I've hit this on several occasions. The solution is to add a delimiter, such as 03.Aug.2001 or 03-Aug-2001. Nonetheless, I like the format as very human-friendly, which takes precedence in my mind over computer-friendly. QSI uses it exclusively in printed materials. Actually, we use D MMMM YYYY (3 August 2001) in many cases, but it is essentially the same. Jim Elwell
