20230102

20230102 is a date string composed of eight digits in the YYYYMMDD format. It represents January 2, 2023, when interpreted within this convention. The compact form is widely used in computing and data storage as a precise calendar indicator.

The absence of separators makes the format lexically sortable, which is advantageous for filenames, log entries, and data export identifiers. While it conveys the same calendar date as the more verbose ISO 8601 form (2023-01-02), 20230102 is primarily favored in systems that require fixed-length, separator-free strings.

In practice, 20230102 can appear in software logs, batch processing outputs, and database records. It is typically parsed by reading the first four characters as the year, the next two as the month, and the last two as the day, then constructing a conventional date object for display or computation.

When sharing data across systems with different date conventions, it is common to convert to an unambiguous standard such as ISO 8601 (2023-01-02) or to a Unix timestamp. Using zero padding for month and day ensures consistent length and avoids misalignment in fixed-width fields.

Originating from needs for compact date representation and straightforward sorting, the YYYYMMDD format remains a practical choice in many data workflows, particularly in file naming, archival systems, and automated pipelines. It is one of several common numeric date representations used in computing.