Strange behavior of DateList when converting string

Question

DateList experiences some strange behavior which i cannot explain. This code works fine:

DateList[{"2012September1211:45:26", {"Year", "MonthName", "Day", 
   "Hour", ":", "Minute", ":", "Second"}}]

Returning

{2012, 9, 12, 11, 45, 26.}

But this code doesn't work:

DateList[{"2012October1211:45:26", {"Year", "MonthName", "Day", 
   "Hour", ":", "Minute", ":", "Second"}}]

Returning this error message:

DateString::str: String 2012October1211:45:26 cannot be interpreted as a date in format {Year,MonthName,Day,Hour,:,Minute,:,Second}. >>

The only thing i changed is the month from september to october.

Really frustrating, i'm already staring at it for 2 hours...

Question: What am i doing wrong?

The October version works on my end. What version of Mathematica are you on? — J. M.'s persistent exhaustion, Nov 17, 2012 at 16:19
I had lots of problems with date parsing functions that others couldn't reproduce. It turns out how these work depends on the regional settings of your system! You'll only get the documented behaviour on Windows with a US English locale. — Szabolcs, Nov 17, 2012 at 16:54
(With non English locals it doesn't simply use the month names I another language. Often parsing is just broken :( ) — Szabolcs, Nov 17, 2012 at 16:57

ssch · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-17 17:17:51Z

3

Solution credit to Szabolcs comment!

If you are on linux you can fix this by starting mathematica from your terminal as:

export LANG=en_US.UTF-8; mathematica

Or if it is not in your path:

export LANG=en_US.UTF-8; /Directory/To/Mathematica/Version/Executables/Mathematica

answered Nov 17, 2012 at 17:09

ssch

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$\begingroup$ It works! I'm glad it wasn't some simple typo i made... $\endgroup$
– Aart Goossens
Nov 17, 2012 at 21:27
$\begingroup$ Is it in some way not wise to start mma alway with this command? $\endgroup$
– Aart Goossens
Nov 17, 2012 at 21:28

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