datës

Datës is a term used in data management to denote calendar date values stored in structured datasets. In this sense, a datë represents a single day on the calendar, typically without a time component, though it may include metadata such as time zone, locale, or calendar system. The diacritic on the e is sometimes used in glossaries or documentation to distinguish this data type from ordinary textual references to dates.

Etymology and scope. The form datës is not a universally adopted standard but a niche designation found in some technical writings. It is intended to signal that the value is a date-oriented data type rather than free-form text, and that it participates in date-aware operations such as sorting, filtering, and grouping.

Format and encoding. The most common representation for a datë follows the ISO 8601 date format, for example 2025-07-14. In many systems, datës are stored as a dedicated date type or as a string consistent with the year-month-day ordering. When time-of-day or time zones are relevant, a separate timestamp or an extended datë with an accompanying time component may be used, but a pure datë record emphasizes the date portion alone.

Applications. Datës appear in data warehousing, analytics, reporting, and record-keeping contexts where consistent date semantics are essential. They support operations such as date arithmetic, period-based aggregations, and join keys across datasets, while avoiding ambiguity introduced by textual date representations.

Limitations and considerations. Because the term datës is not universally standardized, interoperability can depend on explicit documentation of format, locale, and calendar system. Clear conventions help prevent misinterpretation when exchanging data between systems or teams.

See also: ISO 8601, date, timestamp, calendar.