What is YYYY-MM-DD?
It's the international standard date format (ISO 8601) that represents dates starting with the year, followed by the month, and then the day.
“August 7, 2024” becomes:
2024-08-07
“December 31, 999” becomes:
0999-12-31
The Advantages are Clear
Unambiguous
Formats like MM/DD/YYYY or DD/MM/YYYY can be confusing. Is 05-06-2020 June 5th or May 6th? 2020-05-06 is always clear.
Logically Sortable
Sorting text alphabetically also sorts the dates chronologically. No need to convert data types first.
Filename Safe
It uses hyphens, not slashes (/) or other special characters, making it perfect for file and directory names on any OS.