1. Introduction

Basic date and time formats are specified in ISO 8601 [ISO8601] (Hereafter, "8601".). But 8601 is not sufficiently expressive to support various semantic qualifiers and concepts than many applications find useful. For example, although 8601 can express the concept "the year 1984", it cannot express "approximately the year 1984", or "we think the year is 1984 but we're not certain". As another example, 8601 can express an interval, for example "the period of time beginning sometime during 1960 and ending sometime during 1969" but it cannot express "the date is a year, and it is some year between 1960 and 1969". These as well as various other concepts are currently represented according to various ad hoc conventions, and this specification aims to provide a standard syntax for their representation.

On the other hand, 8601 is a complex specification that describes a large number of date/time formats, and in many cases provides multiple options for a given format. Thus a second aim of this specification is to restrict the supported formats to a smaller set. This specification therefore profiles 8601 in the sense that it discards many redundant or less-useful features. It is not, however, strictly a profile of 8601; It also extends 8601, that is, it includes features that are not in 8601. 

This specification therefore prescribes certain 8601 features as well as features that are extensions of 8601. The specification defines three levels:

• Level 0: Features supported by 8601
• Level 1: Level 0 plus level 1 extensions
• Level 2: Level 1 plus level 2 extensions

Level 0 may be considered a profile of 8601. Features in levels 1 and 2 are not currently supported by 8601.

There is a W3C Note, Date and Time formats [W3CDTF] which similarly aims to provide a specification that simplifies 8601. That note was written in 1997 and has not been updated. This specification is intended to be compatible with that note.

2. Notation

The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC 2119].

3. Compliance

An implementation of this specification MUST support Level 0, and MUST state which (if either) additional level (1 or 2) is supported.

4. Definitions

Approximate: An estimate whose value is asserted to be possibly correct, and if not, close to correct. (Where 'close to correct' means "close enough, for the application".)

Date: A year; year and month; or year, month, and day.

Date String: A finite sequence of characters representing a date as prescribed by this specification.

Date/Time String: A finite sequence of characters representing date and time, as prescribed by this specification.

Interval. An interval, as represented by a start and end date, is a period of time beginning sometime during the start date and ending sometime during the end date.

Interval string: A string representing the start and end date of an interval.

Precision: When a date string is cited, for purposes of indicating when an event occurred (or will occur), the precision of that date string is its measure of accuracy expressed as a date/time unit, e.g "year precision". For example, if an event is known to have occurred in 1984, then '1984', cited as the date when the event occurred, is said to have "year" precision. If an event is know to have occurred in December of 1984, then that date has "month" precision. If an event is know to have occurred December 12, 1984, then that date has "day" precision.

Uncertain: A date or date/time is considered "uncertain" when the process by which it is constructed (e.g. a user or some machine process extracting or converting data or metadata) determines algorithmically or based on rules of operation, that its source is dubious.

Unspecified: The value is unstated. It could be because the date (or part of the date) has not (yet) been assigned (it might be assigned in the future), or because it is classified, or unknown, or for any other reason.

5. Features

5.1 Level 0 Features

5.1.1 Date

A date string represents one of the following:

1. year, month, and day (e.g. 2001-02-03)
   
2. year and month (e.g. 2008-12 )
   
3. year (e.g. 2008)
   

For 1 and 2, these MUST take 8601 extended form only, i.e. with hyphens.

Year MUST be four digits. (Years longer than four digits are covered in levels 1 and 2.)

A year may be positive, negative, or year zero. (This specification assumes astronomical numbering, which includes the year zero. )

5.1.2 Date and Time

A date/time string MUST be composed according to one of three representations as illustrated in the following three examples:

• 2001-02-03T09:30:01
• 2004-01-01T10:10:10Z
• 2004-01-01T10:10:10+05:00

Note: 'T' separating date and time must be upper case.

The date/time string MUST use 8601 extended form, i.e. date with hyphen, time with colon. Zone-offset may be omitted or included.  8601 extended format time zone designation consists of either a 'Z' to indicate UTC, or a '+' or '-' to indicate "ahead of UTC" or "behind UTC", followed by a 2-digit hour, followed optionally by a colon and the 2-digit minutes.

5.1.3 Interval

An interval, as represented by a start date and an end date, is a period of time beginning sometime during the start date and ending sometime during the end date. The actual instant at which the interval begins or ends can be narrowed down only to the precision of the start or end date.

The start and end dates are both as prescribed in 5.1.1. Either endpoint may be a year, year-month, or year-month-day. The end endpoint must be later than or equal to the start endpoint.

An interval string is a start date and an end date, separated by a forward slash.

Examples

• 1964/2008
  An interval with year precision, beginning sometime in 1964 and ending sometime in 2008.
• 2004-06/2006-08
  An interval with month precision, beginning sometime in June 2004 and ending sometime in August of 2006.
• 2004-02-01/2005-02-08
  An interval with day precision, beginning sometime on February 1, 2004 and ending sometime on February 8, 2005.
• 2004-02-01/2005-02
  An interval beginning sometime on February 1, 2004 and ending sometime in February 2005. The precision of the interval is not defined; the start endpoint has day precision and the end endpoint has month precision.
• 2004-02-01/2005
  An interval beginning sometime on February 1, 2004 and ending sometime in 2005. The start endpoint has day precision and the end endpoint has year precision.
• 2005/2006-02
  An interval beginning sometime in 2005 and ending sometime in February 2006.

5.2 Level 1 Features

5.2.1 Uncertain/Approximate

The characters '?' and '~' are used to mean "uncertain" and "approximate" respectively, and in combination, i.e. '?~', to mean "uncertain" as well as "approximate". These characters may occur only at the end of the date string and apply to the entire date. (To qualify part of the date, see level 2.)

Examples

• 1984?
  uncertain: possibly the year 1984, but not definitely
• 2004-06?
• 2004-06-11?
• 1984~
  "approximately" the year 1984
• 1984?~
  the year is approximately 1984 and even that is uncertain

5.2.2 Unspecified

The character 'u' may be used in place of a digit to indicate that the value of that digit is unspecified. It may be substituted for each of multiple digits, however for level 1, only the right-most one or two digits may be replaced, for the following cases:

1. A year with one or two (rightmost) unspecified digits.
2. Year specified but month unspecified. 
3. Year and month specified, day unspecified.
4. Year specified, day and month unspecified.

Examples

• 199u
  some unspecified year in the 1990s.
• 19uu
  some unspecified year in the 1900s.
• 1999-uu
  some month in 1999
• 1999-01-uu
  some day in January 1999
• 1999-uu-uu
  some day in 1999

For some applications, "u" is used as a placeholder, whose value might be filled in later. Precision for a date whose string includes the 'u' syntax assumes that the unspecified portion will eventually be supplied. Thus 199u and 19uu have year precision, 1999-uu has month precision, and 1999-01-uu and 1999-uu-uu have day precision.

5.2.3. Extended Interval (L1)

As noted in 5.1.3, an  interval string is a start date and an end date, separated by a forward slash.

For level 1:

• 'unknown' may be used for the start or end date when it is unknown.
• 'open' may be used when no end date is specified, either because there is none or for any other reason.
• A modifier, may appear at the end of the date to indicate "uncertain" and/or "approximate" as described in 5.2.1.

Examples

• 2004-06-01/unknown
  beginning June 1, 2004, end unknown
• 2004-01-01/open
  beginning January 1 2004 with no end date
• 1984~/2004-06
  interval beginning approximately 1984 and ending June 2004
• 1984/2004-06~
  interval beginning 1984 and ending approximately June 2004
• 1984?/2004?~
  interval whose beginning is uncertain but thought to be 1984, and whose end is uncertain and approximate but thought to be 2004

5.2.4 Year Exceeding Four Digits (L1)

'y' may be used at the beginning of the date string to signify that the date is a year, when (and only when) the year exceeds four digits, i.e. for years later than 9999 or earlier than -9999. (An alternative, exponential form, with optional precision, is allowed in level 2.)

Examples

• y170000002
  the year 170000002
• y-170000002
  the year -170000002

5.2.5 Season

The values 21, 22, 23, 24 may be used used to signify ' Spring', 'Summer', 'Autumn', 'Winter', respectively, in place of a month value (01 through 12) for a year-and-month format string.

Example

• 2001-21
  Spring, 2001

5.3 Level 2 Features

5.3.1 Partial Uncertain/Approximate

The use of the characters '?' and '~' are described in 5.2.1. For level 1 these characters may occur only at the end of the date string and apply to the entire date. For level 2 they may be used to qualify part of the date as follows:

• The characters '?' and '~' apply to the entire portion of the date-string to their left, unless:
  • immediately preceded by a right parenthesis, in which case they apply to the portion of the string delimited by that right parenthesis and its corresponding left parentheses; or
  • another component of the string to the left is delimited by parentheses, in which case it applies to the portion to the right of that component.
• '?' and '~' apply to a year, month, day, year-month, month-day, or year-month-day only. They may not be applied to incomplete parts of any of these (thus for example '2004-04-(1)?1' is not valid).
• For year-month, month may instead be "season" (i.e. 21, 22, 23, or 24) however, in that case the entire year-season combination is qualified; neither may be qualified individually.

Examples

• 2004?-06-11
  uncertain year; month, day known
• 2004-06~-11
  year and month are approximate; day known
• 2004-(06)?-11
  uncertain month, year and day known
• 2004-06-(11)~
  day is approximate; year, month known
• 2004-(06)?~
  Year known, month within year is approximate and uncertain
• 2004-(06-11)?
  Year known, month and day uncertain
• 2004?-06-(11)~
  Year uncertain, month known, day approximate
• (2004-(06)~)?
  Year uncertain and month is both uncertain and approximate
• 2004?-(06)?~
  This has the same meaning as the previous example.
• (2004)?-06-04~
  Year uncertain, month and day approximate.
• (2011)-06-04~
  Year known, month and day approximate.
  
• 2011-(06-04)~
  This has the same meaning as the previous example.
  
• 2011-23~
  Approximate season (around Autumn 2011)

5.3.2 Partial Unspecified

however for level 1, only the right-most one or two digits may be replaced, for the following cases:

As noted in 5.2.2, the character 'u' may be used in place of a digit to indicate that the value of that digit is unspecified; It may be substituted for each of multiple digits. For level 1 it may be used only for one or more right-most characters. For level 2 it may be used for any character in the string.

Examples

• 156u-12-25
  December 25 sometime during the 1560s
• 15uu-12-25
  December 25 sometime during the 1500s
• 15uu-12-uu
  Some day in December in some year during the 1500s
  
• 1560-uu-25
  The 25th day of some month in year 1560.

5.3.3 One of a Set

(Note: Corrections applied March 18, 2014

• Spaces were removed from the EDTF string examples in 5.3.3 and 5.3.4 .
• The text 'Double-dot at the beginning or end of the list means "before" or "after" respectively' changed to 'Double-dot at the beginning or end of the list means "on or before" or "on or after" respectively' )

Square brackets wrap a single-choice list. A list is represented using commas and double-dots where a double-dot indicates all the values between the two values it separates, inclusive. Double-dot at the beginning or end of the list means "on or before" or "on or after" respectively; see the second, third, and fourth example below. Different elements of a list may have different precisions, as in the fifth example.

Examples

• [1667,1668,1670..1672]
  One of the years 1667, 1668, 1670, 1671, 1672
• [..1760-12-03]
  December 3, 1760; or some earlier date
• [1760-12..]
  December 1760, or some later month
• [1760-01,1760-02,1760-12..]
  January or February of 1760 or December 1760 or some later month
• [1667,1760-12]
  Either the year 1667 or the month December of 1760.

5.3.4 Multiple Dates

Curly braces may be used to wrap an inclusive list (all members included). For consecutive dates, this means the discrete set and not an interval. Thus {1960,1961,1962,1963} does not mean "the (continuous) interval 1960 through 1963". {1960,1961,1962,1963} might be used to indicate the years of publication of a book - it was published in each of 1960, 1961, 1962, and 1963. Different elements of a list may have different precisions, as in the second example.

Examples

• {1667,1668,1670..1672}
  All of the years 1667, 1668, 1670, 1671, 1672
• {1960,1961-12}
  The year 1960 and the month December of 1961.

5.3.5. Masked Precision

In a four-digit date string, 'x' may replace the last digit, or 'xx' the last two digits.

Examples

• 196x
  A date during the 1960s
• 19xx
  A date during the 1900s

'196x' and '19xx ' have decade precision and century precision respectively.

Note the difference in semantics between 'x' and 'u'. '196x' has decade precision while '196u' has year precision. Both represent an unspecified year during the 1960s, but for 196x the year is not supplied because it is known only with decade precision. In contrast, for 196u the year is not supplied for reasons that are not specified but there is some expectation (though no guarantee) that the year may be supplied later; for 196x there is no such expectation.

5.3.6 Extended Interval (L2 )

The Level 2 Extended Interval feature extends Level 1 by allowing portions of a date to be designated as approximate, uncertain, or unspecified.

Examples

• 2004-06-(01)~/2004-06-(20)~
  An interval in June 2004 beginning approximately the first and ending approximately the 20th.
• 2004-06-uu/2004-07-03
  The interval began on an unspecified day in June 2004 and ended July 3.

5.3.7 Year Exceeding Four Digits - Exponential Form

5.2.4 prescribes that 'y' may be used in Level 1 at the beginning of the date string when the date is a year exceeding four digits. In level 2 an alternative, exponential form, with optional precision, is allowed. The rules are as follows:

• 'e' is used to mean "times 10 to the power of" thus 17e8 means "17 times 10 to the eighth power".
• The values before and after 'e' are integers.
• 'y' at the beginning of the string indicates "year".
• Optionally a 'p' followed by an integer, at the end of the string, indicates precision in terms of the number of significant digits.

Examples

• y17e7
  the year 170000000
• y-17e7
  the year -170000000
• y17101e4p3
  Some year between 171000000 and 171999999, estimated to be 171010000 ('p3' indicates a precision of 3 significant digits.)

5.3.8 Season - Qualified

When season is immediately followed by '^' then a qualifier follows the ^.

Example

• 2001-21^southernHemisphere

However, this specification does not define a vocabulary for seasonal qualifiers (the example above is hypothetical). Communities are encouraged to develop seasonal vocabularies. There is further discussion of this in Annex A.

6. Sort Order

When years, months, and seasons are mixed together in a list to be sorted, this specification does not address the sort order, that is, whether (for example) 2000 is before or after 2000-01, 2000-10, 2000-12, 2000-21, etc. An application may adopt whatever sorting algorithm fits its purpose, thus the value '2000', for purposes of sorting, could be considered to be before 2000-01-01, or after 2000-12-31, or before or after 2000-24, etc.

Seasons should sort as Spring < Summer < Autumn < Winter (e.g. "2011-21" should sort before "2011-23"), but applications may choose to sort "2011-21" and "2011-10" either way, or consider them incomparable.

7. Table of Features

The following table summarized the features listed in section 5.

Level 0. ISO 8601 Features
Feature	Examples
Date	2001-02-03 year, month, day 2008-12 year, month 2008 year -0999 a negative year 0000 year zero
Date and Time	2001-02-03T09:30:01 2004-01-01T10:10:10Z 2004-01-01T10:10:10+05:00
Interval (start/end)	1964/2008 An interval beginning sometime in 1964 and ending sometime in 2008. Year precision. 2004-06/2006-08 An interval beginning sometime in June 2004 and ending sometime in August of 2006. Month precision. 2004-02-01/2005-02-08 An interval beginning sometime on February 1, 2004 and ending sometime on February 8, 2005. Day precision. 2004-02-01/2005-02 An interval beginning sometime on February 1, 2004 and ending sometime in February 2005. The precision of the interval is not defined; the start endpoint has day precision and the end endpoint has month precision. 2004-02-01/2005 An interval beginning sometime on February 1, 2004 and ending sometime in 2005. The start endpoint has day precision and the end endpoint has year precision. 2005/2006-02 An interval beginning sometime in 2005 and ending sometime in February 2006.
Level 1 Extensions
Feature	Examples
Uncertain/Approximate	1984? uncertain: possibly the year 1984, but not definitely 2004-06? 2004-06-11? 1984~ "approximately" the year 1984 1984?~ the year is approximately 1984 and even that is uncertain
Unspecified	199u some unspecified year in the 1990s. 19uu some unspecified year in the 1900s. 1999-uu some month in 1999 1999-01-uu some day in January 1999 1999-uu-uu some day in 1999
L1 Extended Interval	unknown/2006 beginning unknown, end 2006 2004-06-01/unknown beginning June 1, 2004, end unknown 2004-01-01/open beginning January 1 2004 with no end date 1984~/2004-06 interval beginning approximately 1984 and ending June 2004 1984/2004-06~ interval beginning 1984 and ending approximately June 2004 1984~/2004~ 1984?/2004?~ interval whose beginning is uncertain but thought to be 1984, and whose end is uncertain and approximate but thought to be 2004 1984-06?/2004-08? 1984-06-02?/2004-08-08~ 1984-06-02?/unknown
Year Exceeding Four Digits	y170000002 the year 170000002 y-170000002 the year -170000002
Season	2001-21 Spring, 2001 2003-22 Summer, 2003 2000-23 Autumn, 2000 2010-24 Winter, 2010

Level 2 Extensions
Feature	Examples
Partial Uncertain/ Approximate	2004?-06-11 uncertain year; month, day known 2004-06~-11 year and month are approximate; day known 2004-(06)?-11 uncertain month, year and day known 2004-06-(11)~ day is approximate; year, month known 2004-(06)?~ Year known, month within year is approximate and uncertain 2004-(06-11)? Year known, month and day uncertain 2004?-06-(11)~ Year uncertain, month known, day approximate (2004-(06)~)? Year uncertain and month is both uncertain and approximate 2004?-(06)?~ This has the same meaning as the previous example. (2004)?-06-04~ Year uncertain, month and day approximate. (2011)-06-04~ Year known, month and day approximate. Note that this has the same meaning as the following. 2011-(06-04)~ Year known, month and day approximate. 2011-23~ Approximate season (around Autumn 2011)
Partial Unspecified	156u-12-25 December 25 sometime during the 1560s 15uu-12-25 December 25 sometime during the 1500s 15uu-12-uu 1560-uu-25 Year and day of month specified, month unspecified
One of a Set	[1667,1668, 1670..1672] One of the years 1667, 1668, 1670, 1671, 1672 [..1760-12-03] December 3, 1760 or some earlier date [1760-12..] December 1760 or some later month [1760-01, 1760-02, 1760-12..] January or February of 1760 or December 1760 or some later month [1667, 1760-12] Either the year 1667 or the month December of 1760.
Multiple Dates	{1667,1668, 1670..1672} All of the years 1667, 1668, 1670, 1671, 1672 {1960, 1961-12} The year 1960 and the month December of 1961.
Masked Precision	196x A date during the 1960s 19xx A date during the 1900s
L2 Extended Interval	2004-06-(01)~/2004-06-(20)~ An interval in June 2004 beginning approximately the first and ending approximately the 20th. 2004-06-uu/2004-07-03 The interval began on an unspecified day in June 2004.
Year Requiring More than Four Digits - Exponential Form	y17e7 the year 170000000 y-17e7 the year -170000000 y17101e4p3 Some year between 171000000 and 171999999, estimated to be 171010000 ('p3' indicates a precision of 3 significant digits.)

 

8. BNF

This BNF (Backus–Naur Form) description specifies the syntax for the dateTime string. It is presented in three levels.

• Level 0: features that are 8601 conformant
• Level 1: first-level extensions
• Level 2: second-level extensions

---

BNF Syntax used

The syntax used in this BNF description is:

• = used for assignment
• | used for or
• ?    used for  zero or one
• *  used for  zero or more
• +  used for one or more
• Surrounding parentheses used for grouping, thus
  • ( x | y)+
    means "one or more of x and y"
  • (A B) | C
    means either A followed by B, or C (parentheses used to determine how "or" is evaluated)
• newline also used for grouping to reduce use of parentheses; thus
  A = B C
       | D
  
  means
  
  A = (B C) | D
• (*...*) used for comment e.g (* this is a comment *)

---

BNF Description

dateTimeString =      level0Expression
                           | level1Expression
                           | level2Expression

(* ************************** Level 0 *************************** *)

level0Expression =
         date
      | dateAndTime
      | L0Interval

(* ** date ** *)

date =  year | yearMonth | yearMonthDay

(* ** dateAndTime ** *)

dateAndTime = date "T" time
      time = baseTime zoneOffset?
            baseTime = hour ":" minute ":" second | "24:00:00"
  
          (* Zone *)

  zoneOffset = "Z"
      | ("+" | "-")
                     (zoneOffsetHour (":" minute)?
                     | "14:00"
                     | "00:" oneThru59 )

zoneOffsetHour = oneThru13

(* ** level 0 interval ** *)

L0Interval = date "/" date

(* ** Definition for year ** *)

year = positiveYear | negativeYear | "0000"

positiveYear =
       positiveDigit digit digit digit
     | digit positiveDigit digit digit
     | digit digit positiveDigit digit
     | digit digit digit positiveDigit

negativeYear = "-" positiveYear

(* ** Other Auxiliary Assignments for Level 0 ** *)

year = digit digit digit digit
month = oneThru12
monthDay =      
      ("01" |"03" |"05" |"07" |"08" |"10" |"12") "-" oneThru31
      | ("04" |"06" |"09" |"11") "-" oneThru30
      | "02-" oneThru29
yearMonth = year "-" month
yearMonthDay =   year "-" monthDay
hour = zeroThru23
minute = zeroThru59
second =  zeroThru59

oneThru12 = "01" | "02" | "03" | "04" | "05" | "06" | "07" | "08" | "09" | "10" | "11" | "12"
oneThru13 = oneThru12 | "13"
oneThru23 = oneThru13 | "14" | "15" | "16" | "17" | "18" | "19" | "20" | "21" | "22" | "23"
zeroThru23 =  "00" | oneThru23
oneThru29 = oneThru23 | "24" | "25" | "26" | "27" | "28" | "29"
oneThru30 = oneThru29 | "30"
oneThru31 = oneThru30 | "31"
oneThru59 = oneThru31 | "32" | "33"| "34"| "35"| "36"| "37"| "38"| "39"| "40"| "41"| "42" | "43"
                | "44"| "45"| "46" | "47"| "48"| "49" |"50"|"51"|"52"|"53"|"54"|"55"|"56"|"57"|"58"|"59"
zeroThru59 = "00" | oneThru59

digit = positiveDigit | "0"
positiveDigit = "1" | "2" | "3" | "4" | "5" | "6" | "7" | "8" | "9"

day = oneThru31

(* ************************** Level 1 *************************** *)

level1Expression =  uncertainOrApproxDate 
                        | unspecified
                        | L1Interval
                        | longYearSimple
                        | season

(* *** uncertainOrApproxDate *** *)

uncertainOrApproxDate =  date UASymbol
      

(* *** unspecified *** *)

unspecified =    yearWithOneOrTwoUnspecifedDigits
                   | monthUnspecified
                   | dayUnspecified
                   | dayAndMonthUnspecified

          yearWithOneOrTwoUnspecifedDigits = digit digit (digit|'u') 'u'
          monthUnspecified = year "-uu'
          dayUnspecified = yearMonth "-uu'
          dayAndMonthUnspecified = year "-uu-uu'

 

(* *** L1Interval *** *)

L1interval = L1Start "/" L1End

      L1Start = ( dateOrSeason UASymbol?) | "unknown"
      L1End   = L1Start | "open"

 

(* *** Long Year - Simple Form *** *)

longYearSimple = "y" "-"? positiveDigit digit digit digit digit+

 

(* *** Season (unqualified) *** *)

season = year "-" seasonNumber

 

(* ** Auxiliary Assignments for Level 1 ** *)

UASymbol = ("?" | "~" | "?~")
seasonNumber = "21" | "22" | "23" | "24"
dateOrSeason = date | season

(* ************************** Level 2 *************************** *)

level2Expression =   internalUncertainOrApproximate
                         | internalUnspecified
                         | choiceList
                         |inclusiveList
                         |maskedPrecision
                         | L2Interval
                         |longYearScientific
                         |seasonQualified

(* ** Internal Uncertain or Approximate** *)

internalUncertainOrApproximate =  IUABase | "(" IUABase ")" UASymbol

    IUABase =    year UASymbol "-" month ("-(" day ")" UASymbol)?
                   | year UASymbol "-" monthDay UASymbol?
                   | year UASymbol? "-(" month ")" UASymbol ("-(" day ")" UASymbol)?  
                   | year UASymbol? "-(" month ")" UASymbol ( "-" day )?
                   | yearMonth UASymbol "-(" day ")" UASymbol
                   | yearMonth UASymbol "-" day
                   | yearMonth "-(" day ")" UASymbol
                   | year "-(" monthDay ")" UASymbol
                   | season UASymbol

 

(* ** Internal Unspecified** *)

internalUnspecified =
     yearWithU
   | yearMonthWithU
   | yearMonthDayWithU
 
      yearWithU =
               "u" digitOrU digitOrU digitOrU
             | digitOrU  "u" digitOrU digitOrU
             | digitOrU  digitOrU "u" digitOrU
             | digitOrU  digitOrU digitOrU "u"
 

      yearMonthWithU =
                  (year | yearWithU) "-" monthWithU
                | yearWithU "-" month

      yearMonthDayWithU =
                      (yearWithU | year) "-" monthDayWithU
                    | yearWithU "-" monthDay

     monthDayWithU=
                     (month | monthWithU) "-" dayWithU
                   | monthWithU "-" day

     monthWithU = oneThru12 | "0u" | "1u" | ("u" digitOrU)

     dayWithU =
                  oneThru31  
               | "u" dugitOrU
               | oneThru3 "u"

 digitOrU = positiveDigitOrU | "0"
 positiveDigitOrU = positiveDigit | "u"
 oneThru3 = "1" | "2" | "3"

 

(* ** Inclusive list and choice list** *)

   choiceList =   "[" listContent "]"
   inclusiveList = "{" listContent "}"


listContent = earlier ("," listElement)*
                   | (earlier ",")? (listElement ",")* later
                   | listElement ("," listElement)+
                   | consecutives

    listElement =    date
                      | dateWithInternalUncertainty
                      | uncertainOrApproxDate
                      | unspecified      
                      | consecutives

      earlier =  ".." date
      later = date ".."
      consecutives = yearMonthDay ".." yearMonthDay
                          | yearMonth ".." yearMonth
                          | year ".." year

 

(* ** Masked precision ** *)

maskedPrecision =  digit digit ((digit "x") | "xx" )

 

(* ** L2Interval ** *)

L2Interval =    dateOrSeason "/" dateWithInternalUncertainty
                 |dateWithInternalUncertainty "/"dateOrSeason
                 |dateWithInternalUncertainty "/" dateWithInternalUncertainty

(* ** Long Year - Scientific Form ** *)

longYearScientific = "y" "-"? positiveInteger "e" positiveInteger ("p" positiveInteger)?

positiveInteger = positiveDigit digit*

(* ** SeasonQualified ** *)

seasonQualified = season "^" seasonQualifier

     seasonQualifier = qualifyingString

 

(* ** Auxiliary Assignments for Level 2 ** *)

 dateWithInternalUncertainty =
                             internalUncertainOrApproximate
                         | internalUnspecified

qualifyingString = Any sequence of characters that does not include whitespace.

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9. Acknowledgements

This specification has been developed as a result of the work of many individuals, including:

Gerry Ashton, unaffiliated engineer
Syd Bauman, Brown University
Karin Bredenberg, National Archives of Sweden
Bruce D'Arcus, Miami University
Ray Denenberg, Library of Congress
Larry E. Dixson, Library of Congress
Rebecca Guenther, Library of Congress
John Hostage, Harvard Law School
Andrew Houghton, OCLC
Kathryn Lybarger, University of Kentucky
Bert Lyons, Library of Congress
Andy Mabbett
Sally Hart McCallum, Library of Congress
Betsy McKelvey, Boston College
Neil McNaughton, Oil Information Technology Journal
Tracy Neckar Meehleib, Library of Congress
Clay Redding, Library of Congress
Dave Reser, Library of Congress
Saašha Metsärantala,  Umeå University, Sweden
C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, Black Mesa Technologies
Jakob Voss, Gemeinsamer Bibliotheksverbund
Edward C. Zimmermann, Basis Systeme netzwerk

10. References

[RFC 2119]

S. Bradner, "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels," RFC 2119, Harvard University, March 1997. (See http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt.)

[ISO 8601]

Data elements and interchange formats — Information interchange — Representation of dates and times
http://dotat.at/tmp/ISO_8601-2004_E.pdf

[W3CDTF]

Data and Time Formats
http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime

Annex A. (Non Normative) Possible Future Features

Some of the features discussed during the development of this draft specification were not sufficiently well-developed to include. These are sumarized briefly here so that they will not be forgotten and so that they may be considered in a future version.

Reliability

The character '?' means "uncertain". Some developers are satisfied to simply assert that a value is "uncertain" while others want to attach a level of reliability. One suggestion is to adopt a simple list of qualifiers, for example .....

a) Known to be correct (observed, documented etc.)
b) Likely correct ( probability > 50%)
c) Possibly correct (Might be but not likely)
d) Likely incorrect (The date is expected to be wrong)
e) Certainty unknown

...... and to append the '?' with one of these letters, a, b, c, d, e.

The default (whenever '?' is not followed by one of these letters) would be "unstated reliability ".

This proposal may suffer from oversimplification and lack of extensibility; for example, someone may want to represent "almost certaintly correct (probability near but not 100%)". On the other hand, it may meet the majority of needs, and it does have the advantage of extreme simplicity.

There are two broad approches. One is to declare this model to be explicitly non-extensible and define a closed controlled vocabulary, which may be as simple as the one suggested above, or it may be richer. The other would be a model based on an extensible vocabulary, either centralized (i.e. a registry), or decentralized with reliability levels represented by URIs.

Precision

Somewhat analogous to "reliability" (above), the character '~' indicates "approximate". Some developers are satisfied to simply assert that a value is "approximate" while others want to attach a level of precision. This could perhaps be done in a manner similar to the suggestion for "reliability".

Volatile/dynamic/contextual dates

Representing dates such as "today", "now", "yesterday", "past two weeks", "last month", "next year". etc...  

Season Qualifier

No seasonal qualifiers have yet been developed. 21, 22, 23, 24 are used to mean Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, respectively, in place of month, for example, '2001-21' for Spring, 2001. When the season is immediately followed by '^' then a qualifier follows the ^. For example, in the expression '2001-21^xxx, "xxx" is the qualifier. But no such qualifiers have been developed.

A qualifier might indicate hemisphere - north or south. There are also competing semantics for seasonal names: Meteorological, Astronomical, Cultural, Historical... For example, on February 1 it is Spring in Ireland but Winter in England (where March 1 traditionally marks the start of Spring). Universities have varying semantics: At the University of California, for example, Spring starts on March 28. Some campuses on the semester system use Fall and Spring to denote the two semesters but others use Winter and Summer (common in Germany).

There is also the possibility of inserting a geographic qualifier. And there is discussion about interpreting 21, 22, 23, 24 as quarter rather than season, and also distinguishing calendar from fiscal quarter.

Alternative definitions of year, month, day.

• Solar year
• Lunar month
• alternative start of day (e.g. day begins at sunset as opposed to midnight)
  
  

Holidays with no fixed (or unspecified) date e.g.

• Easter, 2009
• Passover, 2009
• Western Easter, 2009
• Eastern Easter, 2009

Named Periods of Duration

e.g.

• Millennium
• Century
• Week
• Day

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