Unnecessary leading zeros
Does anyone share my irritation with unnecessary leading zeros? Sure, they are sometimes necessary when inputting data, but a good example of their unnecessary use is on petrol station signs - now fuel has dropped back to under £1 per litre some signs are showing, for example, 094.9 - what is wrong with 94.9? Before petrol broke the £1 barrier you never saw the price displayed in this way.

Also, I've noticed a tendency in recent years for people to *hand* write dates with unnecessary leading zeros - eg 04/09/08 instead of 4/9/08 - or as I prefer 4/9/8.

Anyone want to launch a campaign with me?
(How soon is now?, Tue 4 Nov 2008, 10:57, 6 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

4/9/8 looks horrible though!
I'd rather fill in zeros so all the dates are the same length, looks better if you're looking down a column of them or something.

*thinks too much in terms of how things work in databases*

Agreed on the petrol signs though, no need for that. Although it is technically correct...
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Tue 4 Nov 2008, 11:00, Reply)

Agreed...
...re. using leading zeros to make columns line up - e.g. in a spreadsheet or similar. However, although "094.9" is not technically incorrect, neither is "0000094.9"!
(How soon is now?, Tue 4 Nov 2008, 11:05, Reply)

Never!
I do add the leading zeroes, mostly because the only time I write dates is for people to copy type onto computers. The number of times I've seen people botch data entry because they're stupid is unbelievable. The leading zeroes make it far harder to misinterpret the date.

But yes, the sign thing is daft. I have yet to see it in real life.

EDIT: A thought occurs; if the petrol stations have cheap signs (which is likely, as they would have had to upgrade quickly when an extra digit was added), they might need a place holder to stop the useful digits flapping about if they're not held in place properly. They could, of course, just use a blank one.
(ThomsonsPier consumes, Tue 4 Nov 2008, 11:59, Reply)

0000I
0000don't 0000know 00000what 0000you 00000mean.
( Bert Monkeysex is waiting for the mods to delete him, Tue 4 Nov 2008, 16:17, Reply)

Leading zeroes
are absolutely necessary when using a computer. Most computers sort numbers alphabetically, like words. They sort on the first character, then the second character and so on.

This means that anything beginning with a '0' will be ordered before anything beginning with a higher number. This is a total pain in the ass, because once you start using more than one numerical digit, i.e. numbers higher than 9, it's still only the leading digit which dictates where it gets sorted.

This has scuppered me many times in the past. Short-sighted planning results in things being named with too few digits, which means that when the digits roll over (say from 999 to 1000) the new entries appear in the wrong place in a sorted list. Everything from 1000 to 2000 gets sorted after the the 1s but before the 2s, like this:

1
1011
1345
1999
2
3
4
5
6

But not if you use leading zeroes:

0001
0002
0003
0004
0005
0006
1011
1345
1999

So people, leading zeroes are your friends. Build in the right number of digits at the start or be raped by sorting algorithms later.
( chart cat has an itch, Wed 5 Nov 2008, 8:25, Reply)

Windows (XP and beyond)
for all it's faults it *does* sort numbers properly without the need for leading zeros. So does Office.
(How soon is now?, Wed 5 Nov 2008, 12:16, Reply)