if you standardise one thing, what is it and why

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The yyyy-mm-dd format (ISO 8601) is the only one that is unambiguous, because no one so far in history has ever used the yyyy-dd-mm format (at least until some xkcd-reading jokester probably will start using it just out of spite). I use ISO 8601 everywhere. It has the additional benefit that filenames get sorted correctly in lexographical order.

As someone that works with huge amounts of data with dates in varied formats... PLEASE let this be standardised. :')

I was gonna reply the "S" in "ISO" stands for "standardization" but apparently ISO doesn't stand for anything.

I was expecting a KFC situation, but no:

Because 'International Organization for Standardization' would have different acronyms in different languages (IOS in English, OIN in French), our founders decided to give it the short form ISO. ISO is derived from the Greek word isos (ίσος, meaning "equal"). Whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of our name is always ISO.

Many years ago, I came across a forum that formatted dates yyyy-dd-mm. That was such a traumatic memory that I still remember it.