Automating Date Format Detection for Data Visualization

Data preparation, specifically date parsing, is a significant bottleneck in analytic workflows. To address this, we present two algorithms—one based on minimum entropy and the other on natural language modeling—that automatically derive date formats from string data. These algorithms achieve over 90% accuracy on a large corpus of data columns, streamlining the data preparation process within visualization environments. The minimal entropy approach is particularly fast, providing interactive feedback. Our methods simplify date format extraction, making them suitable for integration into data visualization tools and databases.