202401

202401 is a six-digit numeric string commonly used to denote a calendar month in a year-month format (YYYYMM). In this convention, the first four digits indicate the year and the last two digits indicate the month, so 202401 corresponds to January 2024. The format is valued for its compactness and its natural ordering when stored in databases or file systems, because it sorts chronologically when treated as a number or as a string.

Notation and scope: The valid range for the month portion is 01 through 12. In practice, many information systems pad both year and month with leading zeros to ensure fixed length. While 202401 unambiguously represents January 2024 in contexts that adopt YYYYMM, other contexts may require explicit date formats such as 2024-01-01 or ISO 8601.

Typical uses: YYYYMM codes are widely employed to label data slices, monthly reports, financial series, or archival records. They are convenient for naming files (for example, 202401_financials.csv), indexing time-series data, and grouping records by month without including day-specific information. Some software release schedules or manufacturing batches also adopt this scheme as a lightweight timestamp.

Limitations and considerations: The lack of day information means the code identifies a period rather than a specific date. Without context, 202401 may be ambiguous across different systems or time zones. When communicating dates externally, it is common to provide a more explicit format or add a day component to avoid confusion.

The representation 202401 thus functions as a compact, sortable label for a monthly period and, in most contexts, is interpreted as January 2024.