Dateizuordnung

Dateizuordnung, or date assignment, is a concept used in data management, archival science, and historical research to link specific dates to data items, events, or documents. It encompasses the determination of an exact date when possible, as well as the assignment of date ranges or temporal qualifiers when precise dating is not feasible. The goal is to create a consistent temporal backbone that supports search, comparison, and chronological analysis.

Common methods include extracting dates from metadata or textual sources, applying calendrical rules, and normalizing dates to a standard format such as ISO 8601. When sources are uncertain, researchers may record approximations (for example, circa 1900), intervals (1900–1910), or open-ended dates (before 1800, after 2000). In historical contexts, attention is paid to calendar changes (Julian to Gregorian) and local dating conventions. Data quality is enhanced by provenance tracking, document-backed dating, and explicit confidence levels.

Applications span archival catalogs, bibliographic databases, genealogical research, and scientific datasets that require temporal alignment. Dateizuordnung supports operations like timeline construction, event sequencing, and cross-dataset integration, while enabling transparent auditing of how dates were derived.

Challenges include incomplete or conflicting date information, multilingual or symbolic date representations, and jurisdictional or calendar-specific variations. Best practices emphasize clear documentation of dating decisions, standardized formats, and reproducible workflows that record sources and confidence for each assigned date.