Bill Hooper asked in USMA 18422:
>2002-02-25, 19:45:15.01
>
>for example. The one thing I am uncertain about is the preferred punctuation
>between the day and the hour. I've used a comma above, but I don't know what
>is preferred. Can anybody advise me?
CAN/CSA-Z234.4-89 says:
5.2 *Separators*
A hyohen shall be used to separate the low-order element of date (day) from
the high order element of time of day (hour). The hyphen as a separator
within the date is preferred for combined date and time.
Thus,
1989-07-01-11:37
1989-07-01-14:12;36
Although separators are not used for interchange among
data-processing systems, they are useful in facilitating human
understanding.
On the other hand, ISO 8601:1988, recommended "T" as the separator to use
between the date and the time of day. Regarding periods of time it said:
A period beginning at 20 minutes and 50 seconds past 23 hours on 12 April
1985 and ending at 30 minutes past 10 hours on 25 June 1985:
1985-04-12T23:20:50/1985-06-25T10:30:00
A period beginning on 12 April 1985 and ending on 25 June 1985
1985-04-12/06-25
I have a handwritten note on my copy of ISO 8601 that says "Withdrawn". I
assume that means "Withdrawn as CAN/CSA-Z234.5-89". That is the only place
that I have seen of using "T" as the separator between date and time.
Joseph B.Reid
17 Glebe Road West
Toronto M5P 1C8 TEL. 416-486-6071
