ISO 8601 "Data elements and interchange formats – Information interchange – Representation of dates and times" is an international standard covering the exchange of date- and time-related data. It is maintained by the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and was first published in 1988 with updates in 1991, 2000, 2004 and 2019. The purpose of this standard is to provide an unambiguous and well-defined method of representing dates and times, so as to avoid misinterpretation of numeric representations of dates and times, particularly when data is transferred between countries with different conventions for writing numeric dates and times.