Y2K-Readiness

The traditional method of sorting items by date is to use mm/dd/yy, as in:

12/01/98: message to David
1/24/99: property notes
4/23/99: recipe
etc...

Well, in any list where things get sorted by name, the above items would be sorted as:

1/24/99: property notes
12/01/98: message to David
4/23/99: recipe

Pretty messed-up, eh?

So the solution is to assign dates in the format of yyyymmdd:

19981201: message to David
19990124: property notes
19990423: recipe

Now the list (sorted by name) will retain the order you originally intended!

(This method of assigning dates is also employed by the U.S. military...)

This works for anything that sorts. (Pre-Y2K programs may not accept alternate dating formats. Alternately, "safe" programs might have a way of converting standard dates to a more stable format...) And it works for ANY year/century/millennium because the year comes first and is always in its full version.


Try it and Have Fun in this new Millennium!


© David Pierre Ostwald, 1999--all rights reserved.


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