How to typeset range expressed with dash of two ISO8601 dates ?
2010-01--2012-03
or
2010-01---2012-03
or another option ?
[Tex/LaTex] Range of Dates (1999-01 — 2012-12)
datetimeformattingpunctuation
Related Solutions
You can use the option literate to modify the output:
\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{listings} %for listings of the source code
\begin{document}
\lstset{language=sh,literate={--}{{-{}-}}1}
\begin{lstlisting}
-- <-- Works!
a--b <-- Does not work!
-{}- <-- Won't help!
\end{lstlisting}
\end{document}
Furthermore you shouldn't use the option utf8x. An explanation can be found in the question utf8x vs. utf8 (inputenc)
This works out the box. If - appears as the date separator there's probably a 'wrong'redefinition of \dateseparator.
Please note date datetime isn't developed further -- Nicola Talbot has published datetime2 about a year ago.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[ddmmyyyy]{datetime}
%\renewcommand{\dateseparator}{-}
\title{The Theory of Brontosaurs}
\author{Mrs. Ann Elk}
\date{\today}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\end{document}
Update
Here's a version that transforms yyyy-mm-dd input into dd/mm/yyyy:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xparse}
\ExplSyntaxOn
\newcommand{\changedate}[2][/]{%
\tl_set:Nx \l_tmpa_tl {#2}
\seq_set_split:NnV \l_tmpa_seq {-} {\l_tmpa_tl}
\seq_reverse:N \l_tmpa_seq
\seq_use:Nnnn \l_tmpa_seq {#1} {#1} {#1}
}
\ExplSyntaxOff
\title{The Theory of Brontosaurs}
\author{Mrs. Ann Elk}
\newcommand{\webdate}{2016-03-31}
\date{\changedate{\webdate}}
\begin{document}
%\changedate{\webdate}
\maketitle
\end{document}
Best Answer
Of the two possibilities you offer, the first one — the one with the "en-dash" — is the (much) better one. In good typography, en-dashes are used (inter alia) to denote ranges of numbers, dates, years, etc. In contrast, em-dashes are frequently used to offset auxilliary, explanatory, or parenthetical thoughts. For much more on this subject, check out the question Dashes: - vs. – vs. — and the associated answers.
By the way, to streamline the typesetting of dates in various formats, including ISO 8601, check out the datetime package. For instance, the following MWE
will typeset system dates automatically in ISO 8601 format: