Content
Dates and times
Write dates and times in a consistent format.
Contents
Formats
Dates should be written in a human-readable format. Date numbers do not need "st", "th" or "rd" suffixes.
Good examples of dates are:
- Time
- 16 October 2023, 19:00
- Day
- 16 October 2023
- Month
- October 2023
- Year
- 2023
You can include a day of the week if space allows:
- Time
- Monday 16 October 2023, 19:00
- Day
- Monday 16 October 2023
Use the HTML time element where possible:
<time datetime="2023-10-16">16 October 2023</time>
<time datetime="2023-10-16T19:00:00Z">16 October 2023, 19:00</time>
Time
Use the 24-hour notation for writing times.
Do not 0-prefix the hour:
- 9:30
Ranges
Always use the en dash (– or –) rather than a hyphen (-) for date ranges.
Avoid unnecessary duplication of days, months or years to allow users to scan more easily.
- Same day
- 16 October 2023, 19:00–20:00
- Same month
- 16–24 October 2023
- Same year
- October–November 2023
- Range of years
- 2023–2024
Use "to" when the range stretches over multiple date fields (dates/months/years):
- Range of months
- 16 October to 24 November 2023
- Range of months over multiple years
- October 2023 to November 2024
Use "From …" for open-ended events and "Now to …" when describing events that are currently ongoing:
- From 1 January 1970
- Now to 19 January 2038
Formats in data
Use the ISO 8601 format for dates intended to be consumed by a machine, for example in a CSV export:
2023-10-16T19:00:00Z2023-10-162023-102023