Building a Hijri-Gregorian Date Calculator: Lessons from an Arabic Web Tool

Short summary

Building accurate Hijri-Gregorian date converters requires handling the discrepancy between algorithmic calendars used in libraries and Saudi Arabia's official Umm Al-Qura system. This guide covers implementation strategies including lookup tables for month lengths, edge cases in age calculation, and UX lessons from agecalculator360.com. Key insight: show both calendars side-by-side and use astronomical data for government-document accuracy.

• •Hijri (lunar) calendar differs from Gregorian by ~11 days/year; no simple conversion formula exists
• •Saudi Arabia's official Umm Al-Qura calendar requires lookup tables or astronomical calculations, not algorithmic approximations
• •Best UX practice: display both calendars simultaneously; use Western digits; respect RTL text direction

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