ISO
8601:2000(E)
©
ISO
2000
All
rights
reserved
v
Introduction
Although
ISO
Recommendations
and
Standards
in
this
field
have
been
available
since
1971,
different
forms
of
numeric
representation
of
dates
and
times
have
been
in
common
use
in
different
countries.
Where
such
representations
are
interchanged
across
national
boundaries
misinterpretation
of
the
significance
of
the
numerals
can
occur,
resulting
in
confusion
and
other
consequential
errors
or
losses.
The
purpose
of
this
International
Standard
is
to
eliminate
the
risk
of
misinterpretation
and
to
avoid
the
confusion
and
its
consequences.
This
International
Standard
includes
specifications
for
a
numeric
representation
of
information
regarding
date
and
time
of
the
day.
In
order
to
achieve
similar
formats
for
the
representations
of
calendar
dates,
ordinal
dates,
dates
identified
by
week
number,
time-intervals,
recurring
time-intervals,
combined
date
and
time
of
day,
and
differences
between
local
time
and
Coordinated
Universal
Time,
and
to
avoid
ambiguities
between
these
representations,
it
has
been
necessary
to
use,
apart
from
numeric
characters,
either
single
alphabetic
characters
or
one
or
more
other
graphic
characters
or
a
combination
of
alphabetic
and
other
characters
in
some
of
the
representations.
The
above
action
has
had
the
benefit
of
enhancing
the
versatility
and
general
applicability
of
previous
International
Standards
in
this
field,
and
provides
for
the
unique
representation
of
any
date
or
the
time
expression
or
combination
of
these.
Each
representation
can
be
easily
recognized,
which
is
beneficial
when
human
interpretation
is
required.
This
International
Standard
retains
the
most
commonly
used
expressions
for
date
and
time
of
the
day
and
their
representations
from
the
earlier
International
Standards
and
provides
unique
representations
for
some
new
expressions
used
in
practice.
Its
application
in
information
interchange,
especially
between
data
processing
systems
and
associated
equipment
will
eliminate
errors
arising
from
misinterpretation
and
the
costs
these
generate.
The
promotion
of
this
International
Standard
will
not
only
facilitate
interchange
across
international
boundaries,
but
will
also
improve
the
portability
of
software,
and
will
ease
problems
of
communication
within
an
organization,
as
well
as
between
organizations.
Several
of
the
alphabetic
and
graphic
characters
used
in
the
text
of
this
International
Standard
are
common
both
to
the
representations
specified
and
to
normal
typographical
presentation.
To
avoid
confusion
between
the
representations
and
the
actual
text,
its
punctuation
marks
and
associated
graphic
characters,
all
the
representations
are
contained
in
brackets
[
].
The
brackets
are
not
part
of
the
representation,
and
should
be
omitted
when
implementing
the
representations.
All
matter
outside
the
brackets
is
normal
text,
and
not
part
of
the
representation.
In
the
associated
examples,
the
brackets
and
typographical
markings
are
omitted.
