# Error converting Date string to Date Object

**URL:** <https://community.wolfram.com/t/error-converting-date-string-to-date-object/23337>\
**Category:** Questions\
**Tags:** units\
**Created:** [December 31, 2023, 2:33pm UTC](https://community.wolfram.com/t/error-converting-date-string-to-date-object/23337 "2023-12-31T14:33:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![patbrooks6](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/wolfram/user_avatar/community.wolfram.com/patbrooks6/32/33112_2.png) [@patbrooks6](https://community.wolfram.com/u/patbrooks6)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2023, 2:33pm UTC](https://community.wolfram.com/t/error-converting-date-string-to-date-object/23337/1 "2023-12-31T14:33:24Z")

</div>

Can someone help explain this error occurring with some string dates and not with other?

There are a number of strings where I get this response

```
FromDateString["12/11/2023"]
FromDateString::ambig: Warning: the interpretation of the string 12/11/2023 as a date is ambiguous.

```

For others like “12/12/2023” or “4/15/2023” a Dateobject is returned without a message

What do I need to do differently?  
Thanks  
Pat

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![patbrooks6](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/wolfram/user_avatar/community.wolfram.com/patbrooks6/32/33112_2.png) [@patbrooks6](https://community.wolfram.com/u/patbrooks6)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2023, 2:48pm UTC](https://community.wolfram.com/t/error-converting-date-string-to-date-object/23337/2 "2023-12-31T14:48:37Z")

</div>

I think I figured it out. The ambiguity was Mathematica not knowing which part of the string was a month and which part of the string was a day.

Once I specified {“Month”, “/”, “Day”,“/”,"Year} the error was cleared.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gianlucagorni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ec9cab/32.png) [@gianlucagorni](https://community.wolfram.com/u/gianlucagorni)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 12:18pm UTC](https://community.wolfram.com/t/error-converting-date-string-to-date-object/23337/3 "2024-01-01T12:18:26Z")

</div>

In Italy, “12/11/2023” means the 12th of november. In the US they have the bizarre custom of reading it as the 11th of december.
