Adding and viewing data > Entering data in records > Entering dates with two-digit years
 
Entering dates with two-digit years
FileMaker Pro permits you to enter dates with two-digit years, such as 12/1/99 and 3/2/09. However, these dates are ambiguous because they do not specify the century; entering 5/6/53 could be in the year 1953, 2053, or the 53rd year in any other century.
Important  When you enter dates with two-digit years into a date field, FileMaker Pro changes them to four-digit years using the method described below. This method may not change the two-digit year dates that you enter into the century that you expect, which may result in inaccurate date entries.
You should familiarize yourself with this method and, for date fields where inaccurate date changes are a possibility, take the following precautions to improve the accuracy of entered dates:
Always enter dates with four-digit years.
Use the FileMaker Pro field validation option that requires entering four-digit year dates. An error message will appear when an attempted date entry contains a two-digit year. See Defining field validation.
On layouts, always format date fields to display four-digit years. See Specifying formats for date fields.
Note  This method is used for all forms of two-digit year date entry into FileMaker Pro, not just data entry into fields. For example, when two-year dates are imported into FileMaker Pro, these changes occur.
Changing two-digit year dates
FileMaker Pro changes two-digit year dates into four-digit year dates based on the year in which the date is entered, always assuming that the four-digit year date should be in either the next 30 years or the preceding 70 years. The following table shows how two-digit year dates entered in three different years will be changed to four-digit years.
 
Two-digit year
In 2015,
changes to
In 2019,
changes to
In 2030,
changes to
02
2002
2002
2002
19
2019
2019
2019
42
2042
2042
2042
43
2043
2043
2043
44
2044
2044
2044
45
2045
2045
2045
46
1946
2046
2046
47
1947
2047
2047
50
1950
1950
2050
76
1976
1976
1976
87
1987
1987
1987
95
1995
1995
1995
The following illustration depicts how this method is skewed. It assumes that any two-digit year you enter is more likely to be in the past than in the future.
Illustration of date conversion method
Important  This method is not used when you convert a FileMaker Pro file from a previous version to the current version of FileMaker Pro. FileMaker assumes that dates in older files constitute legacy data. Therefore, during file conversion, any two-digit year dates that exist in the old file convert to "19xx" (not the current century, but actually "19xx") in the converted file. If you have any concerns about two-digit year dates in older files, review and correct the data in a previous version of FileMaker Pro before converting the file to the current version. See Converting files from FileMaker Pro 11 and earlier.
Notes 
FileMaker recommends that you only enter dates into fields defined with the date field type. Don’t use text or numeric fields to store dates. FileMaker software is not intended to support dates in such fields.