# Bad default behavior for \`Date\` string parsing

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/bad-default-behavior-for-date-string-parsing/6202>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Created:** [October 2, 2017, 5:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/bad-default-behavior-for-date-string-parsing/6202 "2017-10-02T17:42:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ExpandingMan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/expandingman/32/866_2.png) [@ExpandingMan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ExpandingMan)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 5:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/bad-default-behavior-for-date-string-parsing/6202/1 "2017-10-02T17:42:35Z")

</div>

Expected behavior: `Date("")` throws an `ArgumentError`. (`DateTime("")` does this).

Actual behavior: `Date("")` returns `Date() == Date(1,1,1)`.

This seems bad. Has this already been discussed? Comments before I submit an issue?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fredrikekre](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/fredrikekre/32/1688_2.png) [@fredrikekre](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/fredrikekre)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 7:44pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/bad-default-behavior-for-date-string-parsing/6202/2 "2017-10-02T19:44:58Z")

</div>

Relevant: [https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/23724](https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/pull/23724) for possibly remove the default constructors, or at least make them less confusing.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ExpandingMan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/expandingman/32/866_2.png) [@ExpandingMan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ExpandingMan)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 8:48pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/bad-default-behavior-for-date-string-parsing/6202/3 "2017-10-03T20:48:18Z")

</div>

I’ve added a comment to the end of that PR. I’m pretty sure it will eliminate this issue.