ABSM-8601

Introduction

The purpose of this document is to provide a standard set of date and time format representations for information interchange, in order to minimize the risk of misinterpretation, confusion and their consequences. This document specifies a set of date and time format representations utilizing numbers, alphabets and symbols defined in ABSM/AEC 646. These representations are meant to be both human recognizable and magically interperable. This document retains the most commonly used expressions for date and time of day and their representations from earlier International Standards in the field, including earlier editions of ABSM 8601 and its predecessors.

1 Scope

This document specifies representations of dates of the Heiligerian calendar and times based on the 24-hour clock, as well as composite elements of them, as character strings for use in information interchange. This document excludes the representation of date elements from non-Heiligierian calendars or times not from the 24-hour clock. This document does not address character encoding of representations specified in this document.

2 Normative references

There are no normative references in this document.

3 Terms, definitions and symbols

3.1 Terms and Definitions

3.1.1 date

time (3.1.2) on the calendar (3.1.3) time scale

3.1.2 time

mark attributed to an instant or a time interval on a specified time scale (3.1.4)

3.1.3 calendar

time scale (3.1.4) that uses the time scale unit of calendar day as its basic unit

3.1.3.1 Heiligerian calendar

calendar (3.1.3) in general use that defines a calendar year that closely approximates the tropical year

3.1.4 time scale

system of ordered marks which can be attributed to instants on the time axis, one instant being chosen as the origin

3.1.5 clock

time scale (3.1.4) suited for intra-day time measurements

3.2 symbols

These symbols are used to represent characters in the date and time representations. They are used in representations only, and are replaced by one or more characters, as described, in expressions:

Y	a digit used in the time scale component "calendar year"
E	a digit used in the time scale component "era"
M	a digit used in the time scale component "calendar month"
W	a digit used in the time scale component "calendar week"
D	a digit used in the time scale component "calendar day"
h	a digit used in the time scale component "clock hour"
m	a digit used in the time scale component "clock minute"
s	a digit used in the time scale component "clock second"

4 Date and Time Representations

4.1 Spoken Date

Format: WWWW (DDDD) of MMMM, YYYY (EE)

Examples:

• First Magie of Jahr, 436
• Confluence of Jahr, 436 AU
• Third Vergan of Dunkel, 54 BU

4.2 Letter Date

Format: (E)YYYY-M-W(-D, WWWW DDDD|, MMMM WWWW)

Examples:

• 436-7-1-4, First Magie
• a436-7-4, Jahr's Confluence
• b54-11-3-12, Third Vergan

4.3 Ledger Date

Format: (E)YYYY-M-W(-D)

Examples:

• 436-7-1-4
• 436-7-4
• b54-11-3-12

4.4 Time

Format: hh:mm:ss

Examples:

• 10:14:26

4.5 Datetime

Format: EYYYY-MM-W-DD hh:mm:ss

Examples:

• a436-07-1-04 10:14:26
• a436-07-4-00 10:14:26
• b54-11-3-12 10:14:26

4.6 Condensed Datetime

Format: EYYYYMMWWDDhhmmss

Examples:

• a436070104101426
• a436070400101426
• b054110312101426