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Question 1

DateObject["30.08.90"] returns Day: Mon 2 Jun 1997. How do I get DateObject["06.02.97"] to return Day: 6 Feb 1997 rather than Day: Mon 2 Jun 1997?

Question 2

How can I convert a list of date strings into a list of date objects that can then be sorted?

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Use the the syntax where you specify the order:

DateObject[{"06.02.97",{"Day","Month","YearShort"}}]

DateObject[{1997, 2, 6, 0, 0, 0.}, "Instant", "Gregorian", -7.]

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  • $\begingroup$ Since, as far as I can tell, this option isn't in the DateObject documentation, but rather in the DateList doc, is this essentially just a shortcut for DateObject@DateList[{"06.02.97",{"Day","Month","YearShort"}}]? $\endgroup$
    – NonDairyNeutrino
    Commented Oct 4, 2019 at 7:20
  • $\begingroup$ @ThatGravityGuy It is in the documentation starting in M11. What version do you have? $\endgroup$
    – Carl Woll
    Commented Oct 4, 2019 at 8:34
  • $\begingroup$ Ah, well there's my problem. I work with 10.1.0 and should remember to check the up-to-date online docs. I was working heavily with 8.0 for about 5 years up until a few months ago. $\endgroup$
    – NonDairyNeutrino
    Commented Oct 4, 2019 at 8:39
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Since I couldn't find the elegant solution @Carl Woll did, how about this?

Quiet@DateObject@StringReplace[
 "06.02.97",
 day__ ~~ "." ~~ mon__ ~~ "." ~~ yr__ :> mon <> "." <> day <> "." <> yr
]

DateObject[{1997, 2, 6}]

It does throw the warning

DateObject::ambig: "Warning: the interpretation of the string 02.06.97 as a date is ambiguous."

but since you know this is what you want, then you can use the Quiet.

As for your second question, in general you could do

DateObject /@ listofdatestrings

but if all of the date strings are in the day.month.year format as above, then you could use

DateObject /@ StringReplace[
 listofdatestrings,
 day__ ~~ "." ~~ mon__ ~~ "." ~~ yr__ :> mon <> "." <> day <> "." <> yr
] // Quiet

For example

DateObject /@ StringReplace[
 {"06.02.97", "30.08.90"}, 
 day__ ~~ "." ~~ mon__ ~~ "." ~~ yr__ :> mon <> "." <> day <> "." <> yr
] // Quiet

{DateObject[{1997, 2, 6}], DateObject[{1990, 8, 30}]}

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