How would you interpret these dates?

Question

I need to interpret relative date string like:

• last Friday
• this Tuesday
• next Wednesday

The "Last Friday" form is easy (take the most recent Friday that is not today) but what about "this" vs. "next"? Could "this Wednesday" be yesterday on a Thursday? Could "this" and "next" Friday be the same day in some cases and a week apart in others?

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p.s. Given that my target audience is American, I'm primarily interested in the US English vernacular use of the term and slightly less interested in other non-US English (for instance en-gb) usages so if you are non-US please say where you are from.

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My current thinking:

• Last X: the most recent X not including today.
• This X: the immediate next X not including today.
• Next X: the X in the next week (with the start of the week being a bit arbitrary).

Try it out here (be sure to check allow relative)

Answer 1

This tuesday is the next tuesday after today, so on a tuesday, the next tuesday is 1 week away

Similarly, "Next Wednesday" works the same way.

Answer 2

Well I think you need to look at the question... if it says "When WILL you be doing X? then 'this Tuesday' obviously means the next Tuesday. If it says "When DID you do X? Then 'this Tuesday' means the previous Tuesday.

Answer 3

Last Friday = First Friday previous to today
Next Wednesday = First Wednesday after today*.

This Tuesday is a problem. It's a problem because people use it to mean different things. For some people it means the Tuesday of the current week, even if it is in the past. For others it means the next Tuesday after today.

Similarly some people use Next Wednesday to mean the Wednesday of the next week. In the south we often say "Wednesday Week" as a short form of "a week from Wednesday". You will see regional differences in how all of these terms are used (except perhaps for Last Friday).

The problem is that, we can all argue about the proper grammatical usage, and someone will be right. However that won't change the fact that people mean different things, often by region, in day to day usage. That will continue to be a problem for you.

Ideally you need a learning program. It will guess what they mean and propose an answer, which they can correct. Over time, you can "learn" your users, either in whole or in aggregate chunks (perhaps by region) and be more accurate in guessing the right interpretation of their language. It's likely that you'll never get beyond having to allow them the ability to manually override your determination somehow.

Answer 4

"This Tuesday" would be the Tuesday in this week, unless it is Saturday. I have heard many people refer to "This Tuesday" as next week's Tuesday on Saturday.

"Next Wednesday" would probably be the next Wednesday that is not this week.

Answer 5

This refers to either: the current day, the next day of the week matching the name, or if we are passed said day the named day of the coming week. Whichever day you define the week on these rules will make sense if applied in the order listed.

Next (and this choice is somewhat arbitrary, but my personal choice) refers to the named day of the week after the current one.

If we define the week to end on Sunday, and it is Wednesday, the following would hold:

This Wednesday would be the current day.
Next Wednesday would be next week.

If we define the week to end on Sunday, and it is Tuesday, the following would hold:

This Wednesday would be the next day (the Wednesday of the current week).
Next Wednesday would be 8 days from now (the Wednesday of the next week).

If we define the week to end on Sunday, and it is Thursday, the following would hold:

This Wednesday would be the Wednesday of the coming week
Next Wednesday would be the Wednesday of the coming week

Answer 6

Unfortunately, I consider both "last" and "next" to be ambiguous.

I believe that if it's Saturday that few people would call yesterday "last Friday". Likewise with next. On Sunday most people would call it "last Friday", though.

Next is even more ambiguous, when does it switch from being "next Friday" to "this Friday"??

If I were asked to code this I would put it into some sort of table so the users could tweak it.

Answer 7

I am located in US and in every day talk this is how we use those phrases:

• "this Tuesday" refers to the Tuesday that will occur the soonest after the statement is said. not including today

• "next Tuesday" refers to the Tuesday after this Tuesday.

Answer 8

When some people say "See you next Friday", they really mean "See you Friday after next"/"See you Friday of next week". Others (including myself) would interpret it literally. I would add visual confirmation to eliminate confusion. Also, today is Wednesday. If someone came up to me and asked what I did last Tuesday, I would realize they could be talking either about yesterday or about 8 days ago.

I'm American, by the way.

Answer 9

In my experience, in American English "this" always means the next immediate occurence of the day. If it is Monday, "this Wednesday" means the day after tomorrow. Typically, if it is Monday, "this Tuesday" is preferentially referred to as "tomorrow" -- I cannot remember anyone ever saying "this Tuesday" on a Monday, unless they thought it was currently Sunday.

If I say "next Wednesday" on a Wednesday, I mean a week from today. If I say "next Wednesday" on a Tuesday, however, I might mean a week from tomorrow, or I might mean tomorrow -- it would depend upon context and is thus rather "squishy". Most Yanks would interpret that as a week from tomorrow. I think. I would, anyway.

Answer 10

According to this website it is ambiguous:

If I tell you that the company picnic is next Saturday it would be wise to ask whether I mean this coming Saturday or the Saturday after that. People differ in how they use “next” in this sort of context, and there’s no standard pattern; so it’s worth making an extra effort to be clear.

In the UK the distinction is made clear by saying “Saturday next” or “Saturday week.”

Common Errors in English

Answer 11

I'm reminded of a bit from Sports Night:
Dan: Today is Thursday.
Natalie: Yes.
Dan: Today is next Thursday.
Natalie: It's this Thursday. This is next Thursday.

Anyways, I've always taken Next to mean the following occurrence of said day. While This can refer to the a day in the past as long as it isn't closer to next week.

On a Sunday:
This Wednesday: is the upcoming Wednesday
Next Wednesday: is the upcoming Wednesday

Same week: But on Wednesday
This Wednesday: is today
Next Wednesday: is the Wednesday of next week

Same week: But on Friday
This Wednesday: was 2 days ago
Next Wednesday: is the Wednesday of next week

Same week: But on Saturday
This Wednesday: is the Wednesday of next week (the days in the past is a bit arbitrary, but I usually do 2-3)
Next Wednesday: is the Wednesday of next week

Answer 12

Since there are many ways of interpreting this, I would suggest you define the words the way you want and create a chart to show what would be meant by them (trust me the words alone will be misintepreted) and then have your project manager or client or whoever is responsible to requirements definition sign off that they agree with your definitions. Make sure to get an actual signature on paper that you can pull out later when the same person whines, that it didn't calculate the way they expected. In fact get as many signatures as you can to ensure everyone who could possibly be inthe loop has seen abd agreed to your definitions.

Answer 13

Without proper context or a predefined syntax it is impossible to infer the true meanings of "this" and "next". In English when these terms are used without context it is not uncommon for clarification to be sought or for misunderstandings to occur.

Consider the following:

• We relaxed this weekend.
• We're going on vacation this weekend.
• This Wednesday is my birthday but next Wednesday is Fred's birthday.
• This Wednesday was Fred's birthday but last Wednesday was my birthday.

It is not uncommon for this and next to be qualified in some way (e.g. "this coming Friday", "this past Friday", etc).

Answer 14

Using Perl's Date::Manip, it is clear this is ambiguous ;-)

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use Date::Manip;

my @dates = (
    'today',
    'Tuesday',
    'this Tuesday',
    'next Tuesday',
    'previous Tuesday',
    'Friday',
    'this Friday',
    'first Tuesday of August 2009',
    'first Monday of 1900',
);

print for map {
    my $date = UnixDate($_, "%A, %B %d, %Y");
    sprintf( "%-30s : %-30s\n", $_, $date || 'stumped' );
} @dates;

Output:

C:\Temp> d
today                          : Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Tuesday                        : Tuesday, August 11, 2009
this Tuesday                   : stumped
next Tuesday                   : Tuesday, August 18, 2009
previous Tuesday               : Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Friday                         : Friday, August 14, 2009
this Friday                    : stumped
first Tuesday of August 2009   : Tuesday, August 04, 2009
first Monday of 1900           : Monday, January 01, 1900