CALENDAR_NYT
The New York Times "Calendar"

CALENDAR_NYT is a MATLAB library which attempts to determine the date, given the volume and issue number of an edition of the New York Times, or vice versa.

You might think that all that is required is to figure out the first date of issue, and then count the number of days that have elapsed from then to the date of interest, to get the issue number. That's why I thought too, but it's not that simple by any means!

The routines YMD_TO_NYT and JED_TO_NYT are fairly trustworthy. The first routine immediately refers to the second, which has been compared to a sample of issue numbers of all the front pages issued in a recent commemorative book. The actual details of how the issue number was occasionally garbled, held back, or incremented involve about 30 corrections to the simplistic idea of counting the number of days from the first issue.

The "inverse" routines NYT_TO_JED and NYT_TO_YMD work from about 1905 onwards, after which there were only two disruptions to the simple issue incrementing. Before that time, the formula has not been "educated" about the various irregularities in the issue numbering system.

The routine JED_TO_NYT_ISSUE_IDEAL assigns to each successive issue of the New York Times a unique identifier, namely, its sequence number. This is what the nominal issue number was supposed to do. Using this function, we can see that the actual number of issues of the New York Times printed from the beginning up to 1 April 2008 was not 54,267, (the nominal issue number) but instead 56,570!

Licensing:

The computer code and data files described and made available on this web page are distributed under the GNU LGPL license.

Languages:

CALENDAR_NYT is available in a FORTRAN90 version and a MATLAB version.

Related Data and Programs:

CALENDAR_RD, a C++ program which computes the representation of a given date in a number of calendrical systems, by Edward Reingold and Nachum Dershowitz

CALPAK, a FORTRAN90 library which converts between dates as computed on various calendars.

DATES, a dataset directory which contains lists of dates in various calendar systems.

Reference:

1. Anonymous,
   A Correction; Welcome to 51,254,
   The New York Times,
   01 January 2000, Volume 149, Issue 51254.
2. James Barron,
   What's in a Number? 143 Years of News,
   The New York Times,
   14 March 1995, Volume 144, Issue 50000.
3. The New York Times,
   Page One, 1896-1996, A Special Commemorative Edition Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Purchase of the New York Times by Adolph S Ochs,
   Galahad Books, 1996,
   ISBN: 0-88365-961-1,
   LC: D411.P25.
4. The New York Times,
   The Complete First Pages, 1851-2008,
   Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2008,
   ISBN13: 978-1-57912-749-7,
   LC: D351.N53.

Source Code:

• datenum_to_jed.m converts a MATLAB date number to a JED.
• day_borrow_common.m borrows days from months in a Common date.
• day_borrow_gregorian.m borrows days from months in a Gregorian date.
• day_borrow_julian.m borrows days from months in a Julian date.
• day_carry_common.m carries days to months in a Common date.
• day_carry_gregorian.m carries days to months in a Gregorian date.
• day_carry_julian.m carries days to months in a Julian date.
• deflate_common.m "deflates" dates in the Common Calendar transition month.
• digit_to_ch.m returns the character representation of a decimal digit.
• epoch_to_jed_nyt.m returns the epoch of the NYT calendar as a JED.
• frac_borrow_common.m borrows fractions from days in a Common YMDF date.
• frac_borrow_julian.m borrows fractions from days in a Julian YMDF date.
• frac_carry_common.m carries fractions to days in a Common YMDF date.
• frac_carry_julian.m carries fractions from days in a Julian YMDF date.
• frac_to_s.m writes a positive fraction into a left justified character string.
• i4_huge.m returns a "huge" I4.
• i4_modp.m returns the positive remainder when I is divided by J.
• i4_to_s_left.m converts an integer to a left-justified string.
• i4_to_s_zero.m converts an integer to a string, with zero padding.
• inflate_common.m "inflates" dates in the Common Calendar transition month.
• jed_to_datenum.m converts a JED to a MATLAB date number.
• jed_to_nyt.m converts a JED to an NYT date, attempting to match the mistakes, peculiar conventions, and interruptions that occurred in the assigning of issue numbers.
• jed_to_nyt_issue_ideal.m converts a JED to an ideal NYT issue number, that is, a unique numerical identifier for each issue.
• jed_to_ymd.m converts a JED to a YMD date.
• jed_to_ymdf_common.m converts a JED to a Common YMDF date.
• jed_to_ymdf_gregorian.m converts a JED to a Gregorian YMDF date.
• jed_to_ymdf_julian.m converts a JED to a Julian YMDF date.
• month_borrow_common.m borrows a year of months on the Common calendar.
• month_borrow_gregorian.m borrows a year of months on the Gregorian calendar.
• month_borrow_julian.m borrows a year of months on the Julian calendar.
• month_carry_common.m =carries a year of months on the Common calendar.
• month_carry_gregorian.m =carries a year of months on the Gregorian calendar.
• month_carry_julian.m =carries a year of months on the Julian calendar.
• month_length_common.m returns the number of days in a Common month.
• month_length_gregorian.m returns the number of days in a Gregorian month.
• month_length_julian.m returns the number of days in a Julian month.
• now_to_jed.m expresses the current date as JED.
• nyt_to_jed.m converts an NYT date to a JED.
• nyt_to_ymd.m converts an NYT date to a YMD date.
• r8_uniform.m returns a scaled pseudorandom R8.
• r8_uniform_01.m returns a pseudorandom R8 in [0,1].
• s_cat.m concatenates two strings to make a third string.
• s_len_trim.m returns the length of a string to the last nonblank.
• timestamp.m prints the current YMDHMS date as a time stamp.
• transition_to_jed_common.m returns the Common calendar transition as a JED.
• y_astronomical_to_common.m converts an Astronomical year to a Common year.
• y_check_common.m checks a Common year.
• y_check_gregorian.m checks a Gregorian year.
• y_check_julian.m checks a Julian year.
• y_common_to_astronomical.m converts a Common year to an Astronomical year.
• year_is_leap_common.m returns TRUE if the Common year was a leap year.
• year_is_leap_gregorian.m returns TRUE if the Gregorian year was a leap year.
• year_is_leap_julian.m returns TRUE if the Julian year was a leap year.
• year_length_months_common.m returns the number of months in a Common year.
• year_length_months_gregorian.m returns the number of months in a Gregorian year.
• year_length_months_julian.m returns the number of months in a Julian year.
• ym_check_common.m checks a Common YM date.
• ym_check_gregorian.m checks a Gregorian YM date.
• ym_check_julian.m checks a Julian YM date.
• ymd_check_common.m checks a Common YMD date.
• ymd_check_gregorian.m checks a Gregorian YMD date.
• ymd_check_julian.m checks a Julian YMD date.
• ymd_to_s_numeric.m writes a YMD date into a string.
• ymdf_check_common.m checks a Common YMDF date.
• ymdf_check_julian.m YMDF_CHECK_JULIAN checks a Julian YMDF date.
• ymdf_compare.m compares two YMD dates.
• ymdf_to_jed_common.m converts a Common YMDF date to a JED.
• ymdf_to_jed_gregorian.m converts a Gregorian YMDF date to a JED.
• ymdf_to_jed_julian.m converts a Julian YMDF date to a JED.
• ymdf_to_nyt.m converts a YMD date to an NYT date.
• ymdf_to_s_common.m writes a Common YMDF date into a string.

Examples and Tests:

• calendar_nyt_test.m, calls all the tests.
• calendar_nyt_test01.m, tests JED_TO_NYT and NYT_TO_JED.
• calendar_nyt_test02.m, tests NYT_TO_JED.
• calendar_nyt_test03.m, tests JED_TO_NYT.
• calendar_nyt_test04.m, compares JED_TO_NYT and JED_TO_NYT_ISSUE_IDEAL.
• calendar_nyt_test_output.txt, the output file.

You can go up one level to the MATLAB source codes.