: Seeking information regarding the use of a period between the day, month, and year formatting So years ago, I worked with a man who used to format the logbook date with a "day.month.year" style

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It's interesting how phone numbers sometimes use dots nowadays, too. While the U.S. standard format was – and some would argue, still is, or, at least, still should be – (818) 555-1892, you might now see 818.555.1892.

When choosing a format for a date, there are several factors involved, such as:

Do you want the date to look modern, or traditional?
Do you type these using a keyboard or keypad, or write them by hand?
Is there some sort of benefit to saving character space?
Will the dates be somehow used for electronic calculations?
Is it absolutely essential that no one ever misread a date?
Is this for personal use, mass marketing, or a database?
Are you using this in an environment where a convention is already established?

I've noticed several movie posters using the "dot" format, with some variations, including using dots even when the month is spelled out (see samples below).

I don't think you'll find a consensus answer about the best way to always format a date, although I'm sure you can find quite a bit of emotional and contentious debate on the subject. Some fellow named Ray wrote: "Whoever started putting dots in dates and phone numbers should be eliminated!" That seems a little harsh to me. Another discussion board post reads:

The date format is kinda "fadish", meaning that it's "cool" right now to use dots in dates and phone numbers, but that'll wear off eventually. Also, since Y2K, I'm not used to seeing 2012 expressed as just 12. Hope that doesn't become common again.

We'll see if it'll "wear off eventually." As for using just a "12" for "2012", I say that's context-dependent (I wouldn't do that in my software, but I don't have a problem with someone writing it that way on a postcard).

At least ranter opined that the dot format increased when internet addresses became popular. I wonder, though: How many sci-fi fans might scoff at that assertion, having used dots for decades, reminiscent of Star Trek's stardates?

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Not an answer, strictly speaking, but perhaps pertinent info: U.S. DoD writes dates like 02Jan2014 or 02 Jan 2014. Probably they got that from NATO. On forms it's not unusual to see that as 02/01/2014. Until the Y2K "crisis," they would leave out the 19 in the year, which made for a nice symmetry: dd/mm/yy. Are you sure your friend left out the leading zeros?

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