MonthDayYear

Month-day-year (MDY) is a date format in which the month is written first, followed by the day and then the year. It is commonly rendered with numeric components separated by slashes, such as 04/27/2024, or by dashes (04-27-2024) or spaces (04 27 2024). Leading zeros may be used for single-digit months and days, but they are not always required.

MDY is widely used in the United States and in some other regions influenced by U.S. publishing and data conventions. In many countries, however, the day-month-year (DMY) or the year-month-day (YMD) orders are standard. The MDY format can cause confusion in international contexts, particularly when two-digit years are used, or when dates are written without clear separators. For example, 04/07/2021 could be interpreted as April 7, 2021 in MDY contexts or July 4, 2021 in DMY contexts.

In computing and data interchange, MDY is common in user-facing interfaces and printed materials targeted at U.S. audiences. For unambiguous exchange between systems, ISO 8601’s year-month-day (YYYY-MM-DD) format is often preferred. Software libraries typically offer locale-aware formatting options, allowing MDY to be displayed for some locales while other regions use different orders.

Overall, month-day-year is one of several standard date orders, with cultural and practical implications for interpretation, data entry, and international communication.