1 Topic by rmounce

  • rmounce
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Topic: What exactly do the dateTypekey values mean?

So I see there's a field "dateTypekey" in the records.

With values that can be:

D, DD, Y, YY, O, OO, -Y, ND, U, P

(empirically determined by examining lots of records)

But what do those values actually mean or indicate about the date type? It's not obvious to me.

I have tried hard to find a full explanation of dateTypekey or a clear and detailed guide to the NBN data exchange format but have found none. Closest I got was this forum link which had someone asking a similar question to the one I'm asking now: forums.nbn.org.uk/viewtopic.php?id=5825

Can anyone explain each of those dateTypekey values to me, or point me to a useful explanatory link?

Thanks.

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2 Reply by charliebarnes

  • charliebarnes
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Re: What exactly do the dateTypekey values mean?

I think these are the same as in Recorder 6:

http://www.recorder6.info/WebHelpR6V625 … Stored.htm

But with the addition of ND which I think means "no date"

(there should be a page on the NBN website that describes these but I can't find it)

Charlie Barnes
Information Officer
Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership

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3 Reply by Graham French

  • Graham French
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Re: What exactly do the dateTypekey values mean?

They are the same as the datetypes in Recorder 6 with 'ND' meaning no date. An explanation of each of these date types can be found in the Guide to the NBN Exchange Format document, in the Submitting a Species Dataset folder within the Data Provider Pack downloadable from the NBN website (https://nbn.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2 … T-2015.zip)

Best wishes

Graham

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4 Reply by rmounce

  • rmounce
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Re: What exactly do the dateTypekey values mean?

Okay, I think I have deduced most of them except for 'P ' which has me perplexed.

1984-06-01,1984-08-31 -> P (not obvious why this is coded as P instead of OO)

For the nerds, the records I have found with 'P' were actually P followed by a single whitespace character


The other codes make some sense when you look at the start and end dates given:

1963-01-01,1992-12-31 -> YY (multiple year spans)
2001-01-01,2010-12-31 -> YY (multiple year spans)


1988-01-01,1988-12-31 -> Y (single year span)
1999-01-01,1999-12-31 -> Y


1970-10-01,1975-12-31 -> DD (multiple days)
1978-07-25,1981-06-27 -> DD


2012-07-25,2012-07-25 -> D (a single day)


1984-08-01,1984-08-31 -> O (a single month)


1982-05-01,1982-07-31 -> OO (multiple months)

NA,1965-12-31 -> -Y (unknown start date)

1966-01-01,1899-12-30 -> Y- (incorrect end date)

NA,NA -> No Dates Given

NA,NA -> Unknown(?) Dates

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5 Reply by rmounce

  • rmounce
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Re: What exactly do the dateTypekey values mean?

Thanks Charlie & Graham. Super helpful.

I will look out for 'M' and 'S' too now!

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