I didn’t imagine it that strongly before, but it’s really important to work correctly with date and time data types. I saw a lot of application, which were prepared just for one type of date/time format – the usual one.
For example I saw a lot of applications with this code inside:
day := @Left( dateField; „.“);
Of course, it’s working, if you use dates in format DD.MM.YYYY.
I also remember one IBM business partner, who delivered a really good application and asked other partners to test it. One of the first complain was, that it work just with US date/time format. He was quite surprised, that there exist other format as well, but repaired it.
OK, long talk about nothing, for most of you. And for me as well, just until these days. My blogging software is used to Czech date format and doesn’t work in Australia, where they use DD/MM/YYYY format. The difference is really small, but this is the reason, why I’m not able (or wasn’t able) to publish in these days. Grrr.
Date formats along with number ones (remember decimal dot versus comma) are one of the most havoc-creating features in MS operating systems – most programs do rely on OS for their interpretation. The other „funny“ feature is, when the system interprets the date in its own creative way, thus taking the lesser number as a month and the bigger as a day, which is especially frustrating on days like October the 1st!