Tidsformat

Tidsformat refers to the conventions used to represent time, including hours, minutes, seconds, dates, and time zones. It is shaped by language, culture, and context, and affects how time values are read, sorted, and compared in text and data.

The most common clock formats are the 24-hour clock (00:00 to 23:59) and the 12-hour clock with an AM/PM indicator. The 24-hour format is standard in most of Europe and in technical fields, while the 12-hour format remains common in some English-speaking regions and consumer media. Examples: 14:35 and 2:35 PM.

Standards and localisation: ISO 8601 provides an unambiguous representation such as 2024-07-21T14:35:00Z, which can be extended with time zone information. In software, times are often stored in a universal format (for example UTC or a Unix timestamp) and displayed according to the user’s locale, resulting in different date orders (YYYY-MM-DD, DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY) and different time formats. Time zone data and daylight saving rules further influence presentation and calculations.

Best practices: Store times in a standard internal format and convert for display according to user preferences and locale. When exchanging data, use a well-defined format (prefer ISO 8601) to avoid ambiguity. Provide options for both 12- and 24-hour displays when appropriate, and clearly indicate time zones when relevant.

Notes: In many Scandinavian contexts, the 24-hour clock is common in official and technical communications, while informal content may mix formats. See also ISO 8601, CLDR, time zone, and locale.