The American Heritage Dictionary seems to capture the essence of this discussion:

http://www.bartleby.com/61/78/A0237800.html

>>> "Jeff Voeller" <c-Jeff.Voeller@WCOM.COM> 03/20/02 09:05AM >>> http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/general/misc.htm#Anchor-57026

"Are noon and midnight 12:00 a.m. or 12:00 p.m.?"

-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf Of Jim Groeneveld Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 7:29 AM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: is 12:00 AM noon or midnight ?

And in relation to that: to which day (date) does the time moment of 00h or 24h belong? The day before or the day after? I would say 00h belongs to the day after and 24h to the day before, though they indicate the same time of the day. But how does SAS handle thiReceived: from SLCDOM-MTA by firsthealth.com s?

And knowing that in theory time is continuous and any exactly specified moment (like 12h) does not occur, because it has a duration of 0, what is the practical minimum duration for SAS of any time of the day? What is the minimum measurement scale, how many time intervals are there for SAS at a day?

Regards - Jim. -- Y. (Jim) Groeneveld, MSc IMRO TRAMARKO tel. +31 412 407 070 senior statistician, P.O. Box 1 fax. +31 412 407 080 senior data manager 5350 AA BERGHEM IMRO TRAMARKO: a CRO J.Groeneveld@ITGroups.com the Netherlands in clinical research

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> -----Original Message----- > From: Peter Crawford [SMTP:peter.crawford@DB.COM] > Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 1:29 PM > To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU > Subject: is 12:00 AM noon or midnight ? > > I was brought up to understand noon and midnight, so > find the concept of 12am and 12pm very difficult ! > When asked the question: > "when is 12:00 pm?" > I had to resort to SAS (sad)...... and it produced this log > > 1 %put %sysfunc( putn( '12:00:00't, timeampm)); > 12:00:00 PM > 2 %put %sysfunc( putn( '24:00:00't, timeampm)); > 12:00:00 AM > > Is this a standard convention ? > Is it the same standard in different applications, eg M$-Office Sun-Java > In French "midi et minuit" eliminates any confusion > Have other languages a simple difinition for 12:00 AM ? > > When was any AM/PM standard for noon and midnight introduced ? > > awaiting your input with interest > > Peter Crawford > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Diese E-Mail enthält vertrauliche und/oder rechtlich geschützte > Informationen. Wenn Sie nicht der richtige Adressat sind oder diese E-Mail > irrtümlich erhalten haben, informieren Sie bitte sofort den Absender und > vernichten Sie diese Mail. Das unerlaubte Kopieren sowie die unbefugte > Weitergabe dieser Mail ist nicht gestattet. > > This e-mail may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you > are not the intended recipient (or have received this e-mail in error) > please notify the sender immediately and destroy this e-mail. Any > unauthorized copying, disclosure or distribution of the material in this > e-mail is strictly forbidden.