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 "to" rather than dashes or hyphens for date ranges.
Avoid unnecessary duplication of days, months or years to allow users to scan more easily.
- Times in the same day
- 16 October 2023, 19:00 to 20:00
- Dates in the same month
- 16 to 24 October 2023
- Dates over multiple months
- 16 October to 24 November 2023
- Dates over multiple years
- 16 October 2023 to 24 November 2024
- Months in the same year
- October to November 2023
- Months over multiple years
- October 2023 to November 2024
- Range of years
- 2023 to 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