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4.2 Calendar date items

A calendar date item specifies a day of the year. It is specified differently, depending on whether the month is specified numerically or literally. All these strings specify the same calendar date:

 
1972-09-24     # ISO 8601.
72-9-24        # Assume 19xx for 69 through 99,
               # 20xx for 00 through 68.
72-09-24       # Leading zeros are ignored.
9/24/72        # Common U.S. writing.
24 September 1972
24 Sept 72     # September has a special abbreviation.
24 Sep 72      # Three-letter abbreviations always allowed.
Sep 24, 1972
24-sep-72
24sep72

The year can also be omitted. In this case, the last specified year is used, or the current year if none. For example:

 
9/24
sep 24

Here are the rules.

For numeric months, the ISO 8601 format `year-month-day' is allowed, where year is any positive number, month is a number between 01 and 12, and day is a number between 01 and 31. A leading zero must be present if a number is less than ten. If year is 68 or smaller, then 2000 is added to it; otherwise, if year is less than 100, then 1900 is added to it. The construct `month/day/year', popular in the United States, is accepted. Also `month/day', omitting the year.

Literal months may be spelled out in full: `January', `February', `March', `April', `May', `June', `July', `August', `September', `October', `November' or `December'. Literal months may be abbreviated to their first three letters, possibly followed by an abbreviating dot. It is also permitted to write `Sept' instead of `September'.

When months are written literally, the calendar date may be given as any of the following:

 
day month year
day month
month day year
day-month-year

Or, omitting the year:

 
month day


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