Is there a word to make the distinction between a Year/Month Combination and a Month
Is there a word/phrase that would distinguish the combination of a year and month from a month?
I'd call "January" a month
I'd call "January 2011" a ____?
January is (the name of) a month
January 2011 is (the name of) a (specific) calendar month.
January is a month.
January 2011 is a month of a year, or a month and a year. (It is not a year and a month; a year and a month is a duration.)
January 31, 2011 is a date.
I can't think of any way other than that to name the month-and-year combination.
I meet this problem desigining Business Intelligence applications. Objects that combine the Year and Month often simplify business rules.
For example
Year-Month between 2010-03 and 2011-02
(a rolling year) is a lot easier for a business user to create/understand than
(Year = 2010 and month >-03) or (Year = 2011 and month <= 02)
I call such an object a 'Year-Month' : clumsy maybe, but self-descriptive.