From what I've heard about SQL dates, there is no rule as to how a date should be formatted (at least from my personal SQL guru, I've only heard different rantings about how different SQL servers (at different shops) interpret different strings as dates).

Most notably, MS/Sybase SQL server seems to change the interpretation on what makes a string a date based on the locale settings for the server it is running on, but that might be the remains of some nightmare I've had :)

We got all Horror Stories about SQL. Mine is sixteen tables in a dynamic query (the query looked different almost everytime) on MS SQLServer. For a reason unknown to me today I went for table number seventeen in the query. SQL Server said NO! It took half a day to find the server setting to increase the number of tables in SQL Server Query. When I was about to click the setting, I realize that I can take a few of the tables in the huge query and join them in a view. What a waste time! But I recognize the locale stuff. It can be annoying if sometime the locale is there and others the locale don't apply. And you end up doing a Trial-and-Error.