There are various date formats, and the yyyy/mm/dd format was introduced as an international standard to make things clearer. I usually use that.

If you don\'t mention the year, in the USA, it\'s common to write mm/dd, but really almost only in the USA. In the UK (where I am), it was more common to use dd/mm. Thus 4.7 could mean the fourth of July in UK usage but the seventh of April in the USA. It\'s only if the yyyy comes first that it becomes a bit clearer. I translate from German to English and I often write the month out in full so no one is confused.