Microsoft KB Archive/93727

= ACC: Cannot Import YYMMDD Dates in Fixed-Width Text Files =

Article ID: 93727

Article Last Modified on 10/20/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Access 1.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Access 1.1 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q93727



Novice: Requires knowledge of the user interface on single-user computers.



SYMPTOMS
Microsoft Access will not import fixed-width text files if there is a Date field in the text file formatted as YYMMDD.



CAUSE
Microsoft Access does not recognize the YYMMDD Date format in text files.



RESOLUTION
One workaround is to format the date as MMDDYY.

Another workaround is to import the YYMMDD field as a six-character Text field. Next, create a new field in the table called, for example, NewDate, with a data type of Date/Time. Then run an update query to derive the NewDate field from the OldDate field as follows.

NOTE: In the following example, an underscore(_) is used as a line-continuation character. Remove the underscore from the end of the line when re-creating this example.

  Query: ReformatDate Field Name: NewDate Update to: Mid([OldDate],3,2) & &quot;/&quot; & Right([OldDate],2) & _ &quot;/&quot; & Left([OldDate],2)

If the Text field that contains the date has embedded slashes (/), such as 1/5/94, then the starting value in the Mid function must be 4 rather than 3. In the example above, you would change the Mid function to look as follows:

  Mid([Olddate],4,2)



MORE INFORMATION
In Microsoft Access 7.0 and 97, when importing a fixed-width text file with a Date field formatted as YYMMDD, Microsoft Access generates an Import Error log table, but does not import the data for the Date field. If you try to import the text file as delimited, the data is imported, but Microsoft Access changes the format from Date to Number or Text, depending upon the date delimiter. In Microsoft Access 2.0 or earlier, the file will not be imported.

Additional query words: convert year month day

Keywords: kbprb kb3rdparty KB93727

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