Date formats and currency codes

Dates are typically written in one of these formats:

• DDMMYYYY The UK, France and Italy
• MMDDYYYY USA
• YYYYMMDD Hungary and Sweden

Databases store dates in the sequence of YYYYMMDD, but then adjust the sequence of the day, month, and year elements according to the language. The separator can vary, for example, a full stop separates YYYY from MM and from DD in Hungary.

Currency codes must use the ISO 4217 standard, which defines 3 alpha currency designators. The first two letters of the code are the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes, for example, US (United States), with the third letter the initial of the currency, D (Dollar). There is also a three-digit code number assigned to each currency. For example, 840 is the numeric code for the USA.